A compelling new RTE documentary on playwright Brian Friel is to reveal another fascinating insight into his life.
Seven years after his death, a new documentary portrait, Brian Friel: Shyman and Showman, has gained unprecedented access to his widow Anne and their family home in Glenties.
It also interviews many stars and colleagues such as Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Rea, Siobhán McSweeney and Liam Neeson, all of whom readily attest to his genius.
Through family, friends, actors, directors, as well as via his own handwritten and typed letters, personal archive, and readings from some of his plays, the documentary sets out to discover how Brian Friel re-defined Irish theatre in the second half of the 20th century.
In her first on screen interview, Brian’s widow Anne allows cameras into their Donegal home, into Brian’s writing room and study, surrounded by photos of Friel with Meryl Streep, the Kennedys, playwright Tom Stoppard and Friel’s Tony award for his huge Broadway success, Dancing at Lughnasa.
An unwillingness to talk to the press and a withdrawal from public life in the mid 80’s mean that many have not understood how influential he was and remains.
When he died in October 2015, he left behind 24 published plays, two short story collections and adaptations of work by Ibsen, Chekov and Turgenev. He was even dubbed “the Irish Chekhov”.
With wit, humour and deep emotion Anne shares stories of her late husband, how they first met, how he was “a man about town”, how they sold everything to move to the US so he could learn the craft of playwriting and how he kept going when play after play was rejected.
Brian Friel: Shyman and Showman, will be shown on RTE One on Thursday 6th January at 10.15pm
