Language: culture and reality

One of the nice things about having friends who are in the performing arts is that I get to be exposed to events I would ordinarily not hear about.

The other day I had the chance to see Brian Friel's "Translations" at the Crossley Terrace Theatre.

In the world of drama, there are only a finite number of story devices and each movie, play, novel or whatever have some variant on familiar concepts. Indeed, Translations has a love triangle where two of the characters are hopelessly star crossed, tensions within a family, in this case, a father and his two sons, and the struggle of the old versus the new.

In this play, these threads were woven in the small fictional Irish town of Ballybeg at the beginning of England's take over of Ireland. The event that sets the play in motion was the arrival of the British military whose job was to rename everything in English for maps. Thus, language became the fault line for the story arc of the three threads which tied together form an exploration of the significance of language to culture and how it affects reality and progress.

The theatre for some reason was rather warm that night which made things a bit uncomfortable. The play was a little slow starting up in establishing the characters and the premise but not excessively so. The story has moments of deep emotion and other parts that were quite funny. The set design was simple but effective as were the costumes. The actors were on top of their game and portrayed the characters with sympathy and authenticity. In all, I would give the production 2.5 stars out of 4 and a thumbs up.

The first production of this play took place in 1980 in Friel's native Ireland where it would resonate considerably because it would not only have the emotional content of the story which is somewhat universal but also the historical context of the personal experience of the audience and its collective memory.

I do not know the history of England's take over of Ireland and to what extent it was resented. The perspective in this story was England imposing its English on the natives. My Chinese ancestors had ties to America as immigrant laborers but my generation was the first to be born here in the USA. Thus, our introduction to English was voluntary and desired as it was for one of the characters of Translations.

As an American born Chinese, I would reflect the views of someone one or two generations after the setting of Translations. Thus, my relationship to the tensions discussed in Translations would be more looking wistfully at a lost past while the characters (most of them) in the play look forward fearful of the life they will lose.

It raised questions for me about how interlinked language is with culture and identity. I found myself thinking about the incredible choice immigrants make in leaving their language and culture for something unknown and alien. I felt the tension between keeping the best of the old and wanting the best of the new. It was true then and it is true today. A work of non-fiction that illustrates that tension is The Lexus and the Olive Tree. NY Times writer Thomas Friedman used The Lexus to symbolize the aspirations for economic progress and the Olive Tree as a metaphor for traditions that define identity.

Am I making sense here?

For Southern California readers, the show runs until December 14, 2003.
For more information contact:
Actors Co-op
323-462-8460
http://www.ActorsCo-op.org