Translations

Communication across language and cultural barriers is a major theme of Translations. Though the play assumes a complex, ambivalent position, there are numerous moments of connection between English-speaking Yolland and Irish natives Owen and Maire. Do you believe there are moments in Translations where the characters successfully transcend language and cultural barriers? Why or why not? 

Through Owen and Yolland’s work with the Name Book and Ordinance Survey maps, Translations examines a rich legacy of Irish words, phrases, and stories. While it would be easy to read the British as simple colonists stealing Irish culture, the play occupies a more complex position, demonstrating Yolland’s care for the Irish language, Owen’s complicated perspective toward his homeland, and the sense of loss he feels, knowing that many locals don’t even remember the origins of place names. What does Translations tell us about loss, memory, and language? What does it mean to be an outsider (or a native) in the convoluted world of Friel’s play?