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Portrait of Brian Friel unveiled
22.07.10
A portrait of Brian
Friel, renowned playwright and author who now lives
in Greencastle, was unveiled last Friday in the
National Gallery of Ireland by Mary Hanafin, T.D.,
Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.
The portrait, by Mick O’Dea RHA, was commissioned in
2009 by the Gallery’s Board of Governors and
Guardians on the occasion of the playwright’s 80th
birthday as part of the contemporary portrait
series.
Congratulating artist Mick O’Dea for his
portraiture, Minister Mary Hanafin said: “Mick O’Dea
has produced a thoughtful and sensitive portrait of
Brian Friel, who is one of Ireland’s most prominent
playwrights, theatre directors and authors.
“Brian has made an enormous contribution to the
cultural life of the nation and his influence on
current and the new generation of Irish writers is
profound. |
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“His work has greatly
enhanced the reputation of Ireland and Irish
theatre. O’Dea’s portrait will now add to the
wonderful collection at the National Gallery as it
records one of our historic figures and major living
playwrights.”
Friel was born in Omagh, County Tyrone. In 1962, he
published his first collection, The Saucer of Larks,
and saw his first major theatrical work The Enemy
Within produced to critical acclaim. This paved the
way for Philadelphia Here I Come!, which was staged
as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1964 and
firmly established Friel’s reputation.
He was a founder member in 1980 of Field Day, the
theatre company that staged his new play
Translations. That work and his more recent Dancing
at Lughnasa (1990) have become classics of Irish
theatre. Friel has penned more than twenty plays in
total, including adaptations of work by such writers
as Turgenev and Chekhov, demonstrating consistently
both formal innovation and an extraordinary skill in
the writing of dialogue. |
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