INTERNATIONAL

“It is entirely fitting that thisfestival is taking place on across-border basis, given Friel’sexperience of living north andsouth of the border. In a certainsense, Ballybeg is a metonym forthe island of Ireland, if not thewider world – a literary devicethrough which universalquestions are addressed byexamining the individual and thelocal. I wish all those involved inthis project every success.“Michael D. Higgins, President of IrelandREHEARSED READINGTHE GENTLE ISLAND BY BRIAN FRIELDIRECTED BY DAVID GRANTBrian Friel Theatre, BelfastFriday 28 August11:00am | £8/£6 | 2hr 30minsBrian Friel’s visionary play The Gentle Island is aboutthe encounter between two city visitors, Peter andShane, and the last remaining family on Innishkeen.Like his namesake from the classic western, Shane,an engineer, seems at first to be a benign presence,helping Manus (the self-declared king of the island)and his family with much needed repairs. But whenPeter and Shane are suspected of being lovers theirwelcome wanes. Neither nostalgic nor romantic, TheGentle Island serves as a metaphor for the continuingtension in Irish life between progress and tradition.Not recommended for under 12 years.REHEARSED READINGTHE ENEMY WITHIN BY BRIAN FRIELDIRECTED BY PAULA MCFETRIDGE/KABOSH THEATREFirst Presbyterian Church, Rosemary St.Saturday 29 August11:00am | £8/£6 | 2hrs 20minsFirst staged in 1962, The Enemy Within is animaginative account of the voluntary exile ofColumba (or Columcille). The play is set in Iona,where Columba lived for thirty-four years followinghis departure from Ireland in 563, and it concentrateson the private man, a charismatic, worldly personalitywho struggled to combine skills of scholar, bard andruler with a fearless commitment to his vocation, andit probes the theme of exile, a subject Brian Frielwould later return to in Philadelphia, Here I Come!Cast:Peter Ballance, Jim Doran, Thomas Finnegan,Vincent Higgins, Gerard Jordan, Terence Keeley, FrankMcCusker, Noel McGee, Seamus O’Hara and LalorRoddy Crew:JP Conaghan Designer:Liz Cullinane22 LUGHNASA INTERNATIONAL FRIEL FESTIVAL 2015