FrielFest

Today we drove to Donegal to see a Brian Friel play, Faith Healer. We arrived in Glenties with a few hours to spare so we toured one of these museums that look like they haven’t been touched since the 1950s. I asked the woman at the front desk what the museum covered? “The bogs,” saith she. “And trains.” Sign me up!
First I was creeped out by old children’s toys--dolls and clowns whose bright clothes were faded but whose stretched smiles remained frozen. Then I was creeped out by old photos of stern looking priests and cardinals in their scarlet robes. These men had so much power in rural Ireland that it is easier to see them as ogres than as forces for good. Then we visited prison cells, as the museum was next to the courthouse. Then there was a room full of taxidermied animals.
There was a report by a schoolboy about how turf was hand cut and dried--the report was in a plastic binder and was central to the exhibit on the peat bog.
Not usually a fan of trains, I was delighted to get to the train exhibit, as it was one of the more cheery rooms.
Then it was time for real drama. We boarded a bus which took us to a town hall in Edinfagh, where the amazing Rory Kinnear read the first act in the play. Back on the bus to Portnoo, where N. Ireland actress Laura Donnelly read act two. Dinner overlooking the lovely Portnoo strand, then on the bus to Ardara, where the incomparable Toby Jones read act three. Back on the bus to Glenties, where Rory Kinnear read an epilogue.
Each of the actors was brilliant. The play was complex and purposefully confusing. Each actor’s recall of events contradicts their fellow actors’ memories. The central moment, a stillborn baby, reveals the deep flaws in the Faith Healer (Kinnear) and the heroism of his wife and the tour manager (Donnelly and Jones).
Seeing these British actors at the top of their game performing in intimate spaces in the heart of Friel country was overwhelming. I kept wanting to pinch myself.
I took no photos today (Saturday) so here’s one from tomorrow, taken north of Killybegs.

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