PLAYWRIGHT BRIAN FRIEL TO BE CELEBRATED IN ANNUAL FESTIVAL

A major two-part festival to celebrate Brian Friel, Ireland’s greatest modern playwright, with performances, talks, discussions, music, dance and good food will take place in Belfast and County Donegal between 20 and 31 August 2015.

The Lughnasa International Friel Festival, directed by Sean Doran, is a Biofestival with all programming having a clear connection to the artist.  It is also the first annual Festival to bring both sides of the border together with Donegal, Welcome to Friel Country (Aug 20-26) and BELFAST, HERE I COME! (Aug 26-31) forming Ireland’s first annually shared cultural event.

At the heart of the festival programme every year will be a signature production of one of Brian Friel’s key plays, presented in both locations.  In the first year, it will be a brand new production of Dancing at Lughnasa, produced by the Lyric Theatre from 26 August – 27 September and directed by Annabelle Comyn.

This signature production has inspired the entire festival programme, the Belfast element of which is expected to attract interest from both local and international tourists and has already gained the support of 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton and the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins as well as backing from Belfast City Council and the Department of Culture Arts & Leisure. 

BELFAST, HERE I COME! will run across the city from 26-31 August, with celebrations, many of them free, including classical and traditional music, five open air stages for dancing, a harvest food festival and Belfast’s first ever kite flying festival at the Titanic Quarter, Kitetanica. Amongst Women, curated by Deputy Artistic Director Liam Browne is an all women talks programme will also take place featuring amongst others, Shami Chakrabarti, Director, UK Liberty; Kamila Shamsie, Pakistani novelist and commentator; Kathy Lette, comedien and author; Mary Portas, retail guru; Ahdaf Soueif, Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator, and Sandi Toksvig, writer presenter, comedian and politician.  The new production of Dancing at Lughnasa will be presented at the Lyric Theatre Belfast.

The playwright commenting on the Festival in his honour said: “If you want a festival that is tame and conventional and mildly entertaining don't ask Sean Doran to organise it. Witness his Beckett Festival in Enniskillen -it is wild and imaginative and creative and riveting. I have total confidence he'll do the same with the Friel Festival.”

Commenting Sean Doran said: “Belfast has a great tradition of celebrating its talent and The Lughnasa International Friel Festival is an opportunity for the city and its visitors to celebrate the works of our greatest living playwright. With an ambitious and varied programme the Biofestival will appeal both to the city’s residents and to tourists from abroad.”

Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Arder Carson commented on the quality of the programme and its capacity to elevate the city’s standing as a cultural tourist destination: “Belfast City Council is delighted to support The Lughnasa International Friel Festival and it shows our commitment to boosting the number of visitors coming to our city.  Tourism is a huge growth industry for Belfast, and we hope that by supporting events of this calibre that we will help cement our reputation as a top European cultural destination.”

Before reaching Belfast the first chapter of the celebration will open on Thursday 20 August in Donegal with a journey across the Foyle estuary from Magilligan to Greencastle, Co. Donegal, where Brian Friel lives, launching four days of unique events and performances from 21-23 August that evoke the relationship between the writer and the place.  These include an opening lecture given by Fintan O’Toole at the Guildhall Derry, the setting for Friel’s play, Freedom of the City introduced by Gary McKeone, whom Brian Friel dedicated his last and final play The Home Place to Gary.

Culture Minister Carál Nί Chuilίn said: “It is fitting that one of Ireland’s greatest ever playwrights is being honoured with an annual festival and I congratulate Sean Doran on making this happen in an innovative and exciting manner.  Brian Friel’s rich storytelling prowess has enriched all our lives and I’m sure that this will be a festival that will do him proud.” 

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins also lent his support to the forthcoming celebrations saying: “It is entirely fitting that this festival is taking place on a cross-border basis, in several locations around Donegal and Belfast, given Friel’s experience of living north and south of the border – experiences which very much shaped his eloquent and thought provoking writings. I have no doubt that, through the work of one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights, The Lughnasa International Friel Festival will offer its audiences exciting new perspectives on a range of themes, both local and universal.  I wish you (Sean Doran), and all those involved in the project, every success.”

International support for the festival has come from President Bill Clinton, Founder of the Clinton Foundation & 42nd President of the United States said: "Friel’s work is an Irish treasure for the entire world. Although many of his plays are set in his small town of Ballybeg, the themes and issues explored in them—identity, family, and conflict—have a universal appeal. It is his extraordinary understanding of people, their motivations and their dreams, and their sense of themselves and others that keeps pulling us back to Friel again and again." President Bill Clinton has been closely associated with Northern Ireland over the past three decades and on occasion has quoted Brian Friel in his speeches.

During the Festival, Queen’s University Belfast will launch the Festival’s first Brian Friel Summer School in Redcastle, Inishowen, County Donegal from 24-26 August, providing opportunities for students to experience the work of the writer right in the heart of ‘Friel Country’.  Queen’s has the only theatre in the world named after Brian Friel.

Vice Chancellor Queen’s University Patrick Johnston commented “We congratulate Sean Doran on the imaginative and ambitious programme he has prepared for the inaugural The Lughnasa International Friel Festival. We are delighted that Queen’s University’s Brian Friel Summer School will be closely associated with the event and look forward to future collaborations”.

Sir Bruce Robinson Chairman of the Lyric Theatre board is delighted to welcome the brand new production of Dancing at Lughnasa to the Lyric Theatre “We are delighted that our production of Dancing at Lughnasa is the cornerstone event of the inaugural Lughnasa International Friel Festival. The Lyric has had strong ties with Brian Friel for many years. At the unveiling of the Threshold Stone of the new theatre he described the Lyric as a “secret land of mystery and of the spirit”. We are very excited to stage the 22nd Friel production at the Lyric and to bring Dancing at Lughnasa to Donegal, his home place.”

For more information visit the website www.lughnasainternationalfrielfestival.comLughnasa International Friel Festival20-31 August 2015Director: Sean Doran

ENDSNotes to editorsFor further information contact Lyn Sheridan or Finola Guinnane at Aiken PR on Belfast 90 663000Mobile: (Lyn) 07770 584157; (Finola) 07947993247Email: firstname@aikenpr.com

FUNDING CREDITS• Principal Funding Partner - Belfast City Council• Funding Supporters - Donegal County Council, Tourism NI, DHA (Department of Heritage and the Arts ROI), DARD (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development NI), Arts Council Ireland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, An Grianan Theatre, Lyric Theatre Belfast

Highlights of the Festival programmeIn Donegal:Morning readings at Loughadoon of early short stories by Brian Friel and Anton Chekhov; concerts of composers from Brian Friel’s plays at St Conall’s Church Glenties, including composers Janacek, Mozart, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Szymanowski; A Tennessee Barbeque on Portnoo Pier (the setting of Friel’s play Wonderful Tennessee); a rehearsed reading of Friel’s Faith Healer, three curated readings of Friel’s plays on the remote tips of coastal Donegal; The Enemy Within by Brian Friel, a rehearsed reading in Glencolmcille August 21 & 22 2015.   The Gentle Island by Brian Friel, a rehearsed reading on Arranmore Island August 23rd 2015 and the world premiere of a new production of Dancing at Lughnasa, directed by Annabelle Comyn at An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny.In Belfast:BELFAST, HERE I COME!! comprises five mini-belfests with diverse and interactive elements, each with a clear connection to the artist:  Curated readings of The Enemy Within, The Gentle Island,  Faith Healer; all female talks at Queen’s University and across the city including Shami Chakrabarti, Kamila Shamsie, Kate Mosse, Mary Portas, Sarah Browne, Kathy Lette, Frances O’Grady; five concerts of classical and Irish music honouring the five Mundy sisters, Brian Friel’s aunts; New Norths, a new harvest food festival involving restaurants, cafes and bars across the city; Brian Friel Summer Hedge School held by the Peace Walls in West Belfast, with free arts workshops for young Belfast artists and actors. The new production of Dancing at Lughnasa, directed by Annabelle Comyn will be presented at Lyric Theatre Belfast from 26 August – 27 September. Winner of an Olivier Award and a Tony Award, Dancing at Lughnasa is one of the most acclaimed and loved Irish plays of recent times. Belfast’s first ever kite flying festival, Kitetanica will take place at the Titanic Quarter, and Dancing Cranes, a dancefest across Belfast will showcase the 6 dances in Dancing at Lughnasa.

Brian FrielBrian Friel was born in 1929 in Omagh, County Tyrone, his father a schoolmaster from Derry and his mother a postmistress from Glenties, Co. Donegal. He was educated at St. Columb’s College Derry, the same school that Seamus Heaney and John Hume attended, and St. Patrick’s college, Maynooth, where he studied for a career in the priesthood.  He eventually decided to follow his father into the teaching profession, attending St. Joseph’s teaching college in Belfast and working as a school-teacher in and around Derry from 1950-1960.  In 1967 he moved to Donegal where he continues to live to this day.Friel’s first major stage success was Philadelphia, Here I come! (1964).  Subsequent plays include Lovers (1967), Volunteers (1975), Living Quarters (1977) Faith Healer (1979), Translations (1980), Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), Wonderful Tennessee (1993), Molly Sweeney (1994), Give me Your Answer Do! (1997). He has also written adaptations of works by Turgenev and Chekhov.In 1980, Friel co-founded the hugely influential Field Day Theatre Company with actor Stephen Rea.  Field Day was to become and artistic response to the violence, history and politics which divided Northern Ireland, a ‘fifth province that transcended the fractious conflicts of Irish politics at the time.  They staged Friel’s Translations as their first production in Derry’s Guildhall, and went on to stage new productions every year and publish extensively – to date 24 titles, in the fields of literary criticism, history, Irish art music, cultural studies, art history and 18th century poetry.