Brian Friel’s legacy to be shared in new film

A new film - being shown on BBC One Northern Ireland this week - reflects on the legacy of the award-winning playwright Brian Friel.
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Brian Friel – Shy Man Showman gives those closed to this giant of Irish literature the opportunity to look at his life and works.

Born in Omagh, Co Tyrone in 1939, Friel’s life spanned some of the most significant political, social and cultural shifts in recent history.

From Philadelphia Here I Come to Faith Healer and Translations, his plays explore themes around identity, social change and language that took Irish theatre in a completely new direction.

Brian Friel - Shy Man Showman airs on Tuesday, 18 January at 10.35pm on BBC One Northern Ireland.  Image: Walk On Air Films / BBC NIBrian Friel - Shy Man Showman airs on Tuesday, 18 January at 10.35pm on BBC One Northern Ireland.  Image: Walk On Air Films / BBC NI
Brian Friel - Shy Man Showman airs on Tuesday, 18 January at 10.35pm on BBC One Northern Ireland. Image: Walk On Air Films / BBC NI

Seven years after his death, this revealing film sees Anne Friel invite viewers into the home she shared with her late husband in Co Donegal, offering a glimpse into his writing room and study, where photos with Meryl Streep, the Kennedys and his Tony Award for the Broadway success, Dancing at Lughnasa, decorate the walls.

Anne remembers Brian as ‘a man about town’. From selling everything and uprooting their young family to the United States so school teacher Brian could develop his writer’s craft, to finding the strength to keep going when play after play was rejected, Anne charts the highs and lows of their long life together with humour and deep emotion.

The film also has access to a stream of stars including Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Rea, Siobhán McSweeney and Liam Neeson, who recall their experiences working with Friel and readily attest to his genius.

When Brian Friel died in October 2015, he left behind 24 published plays, two short story collections and adaptations of work by Ibsen, Chekov and Turgenev. Through family, friends and former colleagues, as well as via his own letters, personal archive and readings from some of his plays, this film sets out to show how Friel re-defined Irish theatre in the second half of the twentieth century.

Brian Friel.  Picture: Walk On Air Films / BBC NIBrian Friel.  Picture: Walk On Air Films / BBC NI
Brian Friel. Picture: Walk On Air Films / BBC NI

While the big screen adaptation of Dancing at Lughnasa starring Meryl Streep attracted a completely different audience to Friel’s work, he remained a beguiling mix of showman and shy man. He was notoriously reluctant to give press interviews and a withdrawal from public life in the mid-1980s meant that many have not understood how influential he was, and remains.

Brian Friel – Shy Man Showman was made by Walk On Air Films and is a co-production for BBC Northern Ireland and RTÉ.

The film airs Tuesday, January 18 at 10.35pm on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm and is part of BBC Northern Ireland’s Arts Season.

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