Translations, National Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until December 18, 2019


Brian Friel's play may be even more relevant now than when it was written. The clash of cultures and the response of different generations to that reality rings true to so many contemporary issues. The historical events of the Ordnance Survey which undertook a mapping of Ireland from 1824 and the development of the National School system to replace the informal, community hedge-schools are the background for the play. In the names of order, coherence and modernity, Irish culture and language are threatened by the English imperial vision. Hedge-school teacher, Hugh and his compatriot, Jimmy represent the old world under threat and while his elder son, Manus, sympathises with their dreams and hopes to continue in their footsteps, younger son, Owen is open to translating the Ireland of myth and muddle into the new reality. But much can, and will, be lost in translation. This is Friel at his best with a compelling story and well-drawn characters. The entire cast is strong, but Ciarán Hinds stands out as Hugh as do Seamus O'Hara and Fra Fee as his two sons. Dermot Crowley does a wonderful comic turn as Jimmy. Jack Bardoe as the romantic young English Lieutenant and Liadán Dunlea as Sarah aspiring to another life are both excellent. Ian Rickson's direction makes the time fly and Rae Smith's set is wonderfully evocative. This is a beautiful production of a timely and transcendent work.

 Reviewed by J.C.

  Our Score:  ☆☆☆☆☆ 

 Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

 WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Until December 18, 2019
Various show times available. See website below.
Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
Nearest tube: Waterloo
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/translations
Map & Location: Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX, UK

Most Popular

Supersonic Man ★★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Borough | Apr 9 - May 3, 2025

Image
Based on the true story of Peter Scott-Morgan, who with his partner, Francis, became the first gay couple to be married in England, Supersonic Man tells the story of Adam who, like Scott-Morgan, decides to fight his motor neurone disease through robotics and radical surgery. It is an inspiring tribute to someone who boldly faced life and its challenges on his own terms, and it is an interesting insight into the media mechanics that can make such a decision possible. Like the protagonist of this musical, Scott-Morgan harnessed the power of the media through the creation of a television documentary which chronicled his medical journey. The show's smart mocking of the manipulative cynicism that lies just behind our culture of celebrity, plus the resilient wit and self-deprecating humour of Adam himself largely save this piece from falling into becoming simply an exercise in suffocating sentimentality. While the show succeeds in portraying the real pain and mood swings of the sufferer...
Full Details »

José María Velasco: A View of Mexico ★★★★ The National Gallery | Mar 29 - Aug 17, 2025

Image
This exhibition is a fine introduction to a 19th Century painter who is well-known in Mexico, but who has been under-appreciated outside of his native country. The academic style of José María Velasco fell out of favour in Europe with the growing influence of the Impressionists, and his reputation was also eclipsed by the great Mexican muralists who followed him. This current display of his work does justice to the subtlety and genius of this artist and is a wonderful invocation of his country at a turning point in its history. Velasco celebrates the natural world while he hints at the changes to be wrought by the oncoming industrial reality. We are moving from an agricultural society with humans living in harmony with nature to an industrial model and the subjugation of the natural world. Velasco lived in a world that was not only on the cusp of enormous social change however. It was one that was also facing a profound reassessment of its values. The artist himself was both a man of f...
Full Details »

The Inseparables ★★★ Finborough Theatre | Apr 15 - May 10, 2025

Image
Grace Joy Howarth's adaptation of Simone de Beauvoir's posthumously published memoir/novel about the author's powerful childhood friendship takes us back to the more innocent, and also more restrictive, time which formed the great feminist thinker. It is a celebration of a profound relationship between two intelligent young women who in different ways both struggle with the limited roles assigned to them in pre World War II France. Although the rebellious Andrée smokes and kisses a boy, she remains deeply religious and socially conformist, while her soulmate, Sylvie is actually more revolutionary. She rejects the notion of God and manages to avoid the requirement to marry. The latter character is based on de Beauvoir herself, and this is a touching portrait of the formative female relationship that contributed to the development of the writer who would later pen The Second Sex . Howarth's adaptation and the sensitive performances of Lara Manela as Andrée and Ayesha Ostl...
Full Details »

St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

The Carracci Cartoons: Myths in the Making ★★★ The National Gallery | Apr 10 - Jul 6, 2025 (Free Entry)

Image
This free show features two of the cartoons, or large charcoal drawings, created by the Carracci brothers, Annibale and Agostino, for the decoration of the Roman residence of the young cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626). Both works are actually attributed to Agostino Carracci with possible input from Annibale. Made on paper, the two large drawings were conceived as working tools intended for use in preparation to paint the fresco which was to decorate the ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese. They were designed to be used for the transfer of sections of that complex composition onto fresh plaster, and they offer a unique insight into the working practices of a Renaissance artist. The cartoons, which have long been the property of The National Gallery and have not often been on display, represent two scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses : "Cephalus carried off by Aurora in her Chariot" (about 1599) and "A Woman borne off by a Sea God" (about 1599). They have been interpr...
Full Details »

Manhunt ★★★ Royal Court Theatre | Mar 28 - May 3, 2025

Image
Based on the true story of Raoul Moat who in 2010 killed one person and maimed his girlfriend and a police officer, this powerful recreation of the incidents and the ensuing manhunt focuses on the forces that made Moat into the raging inferno that he was. Abandoned by his father and abused by his mentally ill mother, he was then raised in care, and from his perspective, was abused by all the bureaucratic entities that intervened in his life: the social care system, the police and various legal proceedings. Moat saw himself as a victim, and although Robert Icke's play is largely presented from Moat's point of view, the author strives to balance this and to avoid any appearance of justifying Moat's behaviour as he uncovers its sources. Indeed, a long period in which the audience is in darkness, probably to replicate the blinding of one of Moat's victims, plus the detailed recounting of that victim's story are no doubt intended to serve this purpose. However, despite s...
Full Details »

Heisenberg ★★★★ Arcola Theatre | Apr 9 - May 10, 2025

Image
Simon Stephens' play is an amusing riff on the famous uncertainty principle enunciated by German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg in 1927. In this instance the particle in question which eludes the calculation of its speed and location at the same time is Georgie and her developing relationship with Alex. When the lovable, loony Georgie randomly plants a kiss on the back of the neck of staid butcher, Alex, and for no apparent reason pursues a relationship with the woman who is several years her senior, what follows is an amusing dance of wit and self-revelation that is utterly charming. As the relationship forms between this unlikely couple, one can't help but think of the outstanding 1971 film, Harold and Maude , which also presented an intergenerational relationship. Somewhat unfortunately in this case, however, playwright Stephens falls into the tired cliché of presenting intergenerational relationships as exploitative (perhaps from the need to create "dra...
Full Details »

Cartier ★★★★ Victoria & Albert Museum | Apr 12 - Nov 16, 2025

Image
At the beginning of the 20th century, the three grandsons of the jeweller, Louis-François Cartier, set out to create a global brand. They established branches of the family business in New York, London and Paris, and while this exhibition celebrates their company's craftsmanship and imagination, it also presents what has been a masterpiece of marketing. From the beginning, the Cartiers courted the royal and the rich in order to establish their brand, and they cleverly moved with the times to embrace the patronage of film stars and pop idols when these nouveaux riches became the emerging market. Of the over 350 objects on display, we have pieces created for several royal families and the likes of the Duchess of Windsor and Princess Margaret. There are pieces worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and more contemporary celebrities such Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. From garish tiaras and gaudy broaches to the more elegant tank watch and popular 1969 Love bracelet, Cartier's creatio...
Full Details »

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo ★★★★ Royal Academy of Arts | Mar 21 - Jun 29, 2025

Image
If previously you've only thought of Victor Hugo as a writer, this exhibition demonstrates that there is a great deal more to the celebrated creator of Les Misérables . As well as being a highly successful author, and a politician of deep conviction, Hugo was also a talented and intriguing artist, and this opportunity to see some forty of his almost two thousand drawings is a not-to-be-missed occasion. Divided into four sections (Writing & Drawing, Observation & Imagination, Fantasy & Reality, Ocean) the exhibition shows that Hugo's originality and dramatic sense were not confined to his novels and poetry. With its cunning perspective and tantalising implications, a work such as The Town of Vianden Seen Through a Spider's Web (1871) recalls a tale by Edgar Allan Poe, while The Shade of the Manchineel Tree (Notes from a Trip to the Pyrenees and Spain) (1856) with its eerie skull, has an equally wonderful Gothic feel. The enigmatic Mushroom (1850) which almost ...
Full Details »

Love in Action ★★★★★ Sadler's Wells Theatre | Oct 31 - Nov 2, 2024

Image
Hideki Noda's Love in Action is a wonderfully wild ride into Japanese history centred on the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. The piece which is based on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov centres around the trial of Tomitaro, one of the Karamatsu brothers. He is accused of murdering his father as a result of a love triangle in which he shared a mistress with his parent. The story loosely follows the Russian author's original with Tomitaro's two brothers representing two contrasting perspectives on reality, the scientific and the spiritual, but in this version there is also a deeply political allegory. This is all broadly played for laughs, and the show abounds with wacky references to Western cultural touchstones from Leonardo's The Last Supper to Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire . There are also some brilliantly loony allusions to current pop culture. Who saw a quotation from Dirty Dancing coming? It is all a delightfully manic mishmash, and just...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings