Glowing reviews from the US of the Abbey production of Brian Friel's Translations are an encouraging prelude to the company's European tour of the play. At the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in Connecticut last week, director Ben Barnes, set and costume designer Monica Frawley and the cast were praised for what Variety called a "highly rewarding" production. " Just about everything about this dazzling Translations is precisely right," said the Irish Echo. "It is a richly layered work touching on love, politics, tradition, betrayal and hope. All of these are brightly illuminated with humour and poignancy in the Abbey Theatre's production," said the New Haven Register.
With a largely different cast from its run last November, Translations will play at the Abbey from August 1st until September 20th, then visit five European theatres: Teatre Nacional de Catalunya in Barcelona, La ComΘdie de Saint-, Theater im Pfalzbau in Ludwigshafen, Nβrodn∅ Divadlo in Prague and Vigszinhaz Theatre in Budapest. The tour, which will cost approximately £60,000 a week, is part-funded by the cultural-relations committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs with sponsorship from Oman Moving & Storage.
One of the Abbey's recently appointed associate directors, Lβszl≤ Marton, is artistic director of the Vigszinhaz, which produces contemporary work, and he will be directing a production at the Abbey next year. Further European connections are being forged with Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, which will be visiting the Abbey next year or in 2003.
"We're hoping to establish an exchange relationship with this company, who are keen to develop the existing Irish-Catalonian links and parallels," says the Abbey's managing director, Richard Wakely. Could one of these parallels be the fact that Catalonia's national theatre has just reopened in its stunning new building, designed by the architect of Barcelona's airport, Ricardo Bofil?
With the Dβil in recess and tomorrow's Cabinet meeting the last before the summer break, it seems unlikely that there'll be a decision on the Abbey's proposed new or refurbished building until the autumn. Meanwhile, all interested parties, including Minister de Valera, are digesting the Office of Public Works' most recent recommendations on the subject - and staying very quiet.
When The Bells Go Down, the Per Cent for Art commission for the new fire station at Ballyvolane in Cork city, challenges conventions of public art, writes Alannah Hopkin. It was commissioned from the writer Judy Kravis and the visual artist Peter Morgan, following their collaboration on Lives Less Ordinary, a book published by The Lilliput Press in 1999. Their response takes the form of a new book, containing interviews and colour portraits, and two wall-mounted pieces consisting of portraits and quotations.
Can a book be public art? According to Kravis and Morgan, the book is first and foremost for the firemen, then for their families and friends. It will also be for sale (Road Books, £9.99), with proceeds going to charities supported by the Cork City Fire Brigade Benevolent Fund. The Per Cent for Art budget did not cover the costs of both the artwork and the book, but a book was what the firefighters wanted, so Cork Corporation and the brigade made up the shortfall.
Kravis's interviews are edited into an anonymous narrative, letting the participants talk candidly about their occupation, which is quickly seen to be a vocation rather than a job. Morgan's impressive portraits of the men and their equipment perfectly complement the text.
frontrow@irish-times.ie
