Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books
Today is the story of January 9th
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It is the ninth day of the year, leaving 356 days remaining in 2023.
He told his stories of Irish history on the stage, writing about colonization and wars, and the impact they had on the people, families, communities, and memories of Ireland. He was known for his language skills, his character development, and his ear for dialogue.
He also wrote short stories, publishing several collections. With the actor Stephen Rea, he founded the Field Day Theatre Company in Derry.
But it was his plays, often set in the fictional small Irish town of Ballybeg -- whose literal translation from Irish is small town -- that gained him fame. He was called the "Chekhov of Ireland," and perhaps the best Irish playwright of his times.
His first play, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, concerned a young man from Ireland who was moving to the United States. It first appeared in Dublin, later in London's West End, and on Broadway in New York, where it was nominated for a Tony Award for best play.
He wrote several plays in the 1970s and 1980s that dealt with The Troubles in Northern Ireland -- Freedom of the City, Volunteers, and Making History among them. His 1980 play, Translations, told about how the English, in an effort to destroy Irish life and culture, set about to change town and place names from the original Irish to English,
His best known play is, perhaps, Dancing at Lughnasa, which won a Tony Award for Best Play in 1992 and was adapted for the cinema in 1998. It tells the story of a family of five Irish women, through the eyes of a son.
Friel, who lived in County Donegal, Ireland, for most of his life, died there in 2015.
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