Brian Friel’s Translations will be staged in Cyprus, with a new production at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation’s Main Stage in Nicosia that places the 1980 play in conversation with the island’s own history of partition and continued foreign military presence.
Directed and co‑translated by Irish‑Cypriot theatre‑maker Patrick Myles, the production sets Friel’s drama — originally located in rural Donegal in 1833 — against Cyprus’ experience of renaming, territorial division and competing identities. The play follows a hedge‑school community as British military surveyors arrive to anglicise Irish place names and impose a new English‑language education system, signalling a profound cultural shift.
The Cyprus staging will be performed in both Cypriot Greek dialect and English, with Cypriot actors playing the Irish roles and British actors portraying the English officers.
Myles and co‑translator Andreas Tselepos, who also appears in the cast, say the linguistic hierarchy embedded in the play gains new resonance in Cyprus, where British Sovereign Base Areas and Turkish troops remain present decades after the island’s division.
The production opens Saturday, with an official premiere on April 4. Performances run through mid‑May. Shows on April 24 in Nicosia and May 15 in Limassol will include English and Turkish surtitles.