| Major award makes Friel torc of the
town  By
STAFF REPORTER
Playwright Brian Friel’s legendary status has been recognised after
he was awarded Ireland’s highest artistic honour.
The author of such classic plays as Dancing at Lughnasa was presented
with a golden torc — the greatest accolade the State can bestow
on an artist.
And he joked that there were certain conditions necessary to be made a
Saoi — a person of special standing within the artists’ organisation
Aosdána.
He said: “You’ve got to be very old, creatively washed-up
and the end is around the next bend in the road.”
President Mary McAleese presented the award to the playwright and praised
his work for representing a largely Catholic community that had lived
a reduced existence on the borderlands of Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.
She said: “He has been recognised right around the world as one
of the finest playwrights in the English language.
“He is a seminal influence on our Irish theatre, on Irish thinking
and on thinking about Ireland.”
The playwright said he was honoured by the title and the President’s
words but joked that he had been fast-tracked to the title of Saoi because
of his recent stroke.
While still walking with a cane Mr Friel was clearly in high spirits as
he accepted the honour.
The playwright was born in Omagh in 1929 and first came to international
prominence with his play Philadelphia Here I Come!, which premiered at
the 1964 Dublin Theatre Festival and went on to critical acclaim and success
on Broadway.
His other prominent works include The Freedom of the City — a critical
examination of the Widgery Tribunal in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday
— Dancing at Lughnasa, which also transferred to a long run on Broadway,
and was made into a film starring Meryl Streep, and what many consider
his masterpiece, Faith Healer, which is a series of three monologues based
on the life of a faith healer.
He was joined at the ceremony by a host of luminaries from the arts world
including actor Ralph Fiennes who is playing in a version of Mr Friel’s
play Faith Healer at Dublin’s Gate Theatre.
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