War of words

Translations finds the soul of language

by Johnette Rodriguez

TRANSLATIONS. By Brian Friel. Directed by Kate Lohman and Nigel Gore. With Stephen Lynch, Sandra Mayoh, Paul Buxton, Robert Dunn, Molly Lloyd, Michael Healy, Jeanine Kane, Laurence "Will" Jamison, Gary Lait Cummings,and Jim O'Brien. At the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre through May 9.

In their stirring production of Irish playwright Brian Friel's Translations, the cast and crew at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre leave you with a brogue on your tongue and an ache in your heart. Directors Kate Lohman and Nigel Gore have a good feel for the pace of their players -- when to keep the dialogue moving so quickly it almost overlaps, and when to let it slow to a tempo that packs every syllable with import. They have pushed each actor to crawl inside the skin of his or her character and give us back a fully-formed human being, complete with accents, whether heavy or light, that stay consistent.

Friel's piece itself prods us to once again question the sins of imperialism, this time from the perspective of language, exemplified in the casual murder of rhythm and metaphor, of culture and history, when the English colonial forces decided to rename the Irish towns, villages and other geographic highlights. And though one of the plot points turns on this very event -- a British orthographer and his Irish assistant, a former resident of the township, who have come to remap the area -- Friel plays upon his theme with such depth and variation that we also ponder the importance of language to the human soul.

From the opening scene, as the schoolmaster's son Manus (Stephen Lynch) tries to teach the mute (but not deaf) Sarah (Sandra Mayoh) to put voice to words, to the final scene, when the disillusioned schoolmaster himself (Paul Buxton) tries to make sense of what is happening to his country by repeating lines from Virgil's Aeneid, we are struck by Friel's message. These Irish villagers in 1833 cherish not only their threatened Gaelic but also the Greek and Roman which they have held onto in makeshift classrooms, such as the hedge-school in this play (reminding us that it was 5th-century monks and scribes in Ireland who preserved these same classical texts in the Dark Ages and later taught them to the rest of Europe).

The ensemble performances in Translations schoolroom scene are terrific, with Robert Dunn as the Homer-spouting tramp Jimmy Jack; Molly Lloyd as the saucy, earnest Bridget; Michael Healy as the gossipy but perplexed-by-multiplication Doalty; Jeanine Kane as the dreamy and daring Maire; and the aforementioned Mayoh as the quiet, observant Sarah and Lynch as the long-suffering but hopeful Manus. Putting this motley crew through their academic paces is the peripatetic, alcoholic schoolmaster Hugh (given a dignity and authority despite his failings by Paul Buxton). The whole is a marvelous portrayal of rural innocence, humor and tolerance until the outside world comes crashing in upon them, in the guise of Hugh's prodigal son Owen (Laurence "Will" Jamison) and his new employers, Captain Lancey (Gary Lait Cummings) and Lieutenant George Yolland (Jim O'Brien).

Jamison convinces us of Owen's enthusiasm for his new job as translator and assistant on the renaming project while maintaining a certain loyalty to his home village -- he doesn't precisely translate the haughty phrases of the captain to the villagers. O'Brien conveys Yolland's infatuation with the region, his romanticized desire to settle there and learn the language.

But it is in the pivotal scene between Maire and George, when they try to get to know each other across the barricade of not speaking each other's languages, that Kane and O'Brien really shine. In his frustration at only being able to repeat his name and pat his chest, George resorts to speaking the Gaelic place names he had learned just that afternoon from Owen; Maire repeats the one English sentence she memorized from her grandmother and then learns the English place names of George's homeland. And in loving just the sound of each other's languages, they try to teach each other the words for "always." It's an unforgettable moment.

There are many other things that make Feinstein-Gamm's incarnation of Translations unforgettable. The rough-wood set, with its painted view of the sea through an open window, eloquently gives us the simplicity of that time and place (kudos to scenic designer Andrew Lederman). Musical director Patrick Hutchinson has chosen and performs haunting Irish airs that enhance the mood of longing in the play -- for love, for an easier life, for freedom from oppression. Marilyn Salvatore's costumes and Deb McGowan's make-up are transforming and transfixing -- from Jimmy Jack's layers of torn coats and smeared face to the linen pants and vest of the citified Owen.

Translations is a reminder that ethnic cleansing is nothing new under the sun and that people seldom remain defeated by their oppressors. Don't miss this thought-provoking play.