FRIEL, BRIAN

born Jan. 9, 1929, near Omagh, County Tyrone, N.Ire. playwright noted for his portrayals of Irish Catholic conditions, in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Educated at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (B.A., 1948), and St. Joseph's Training College, Belfast (194950), he taught school in Londonderry for 10 years. After The New Yorker began regular publication of his stories, he turned to writing full time in 1960, issuing short stories and radio and stage plays. After a six-month tutelage at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S., in 1963, he wrote his first dramatic success, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, produced first by the Dublin Theatre Festival (1964) and subsequently appearing in New York City and London to critical and popular acclaim. The play told of a young Irishman's mood changes in contemplating emigrating from Ireland to America. Soon, Friel himself was settled in County Donegal, Ireland. Thereafter he had plays produced almost yearly for the next decade. After writing The Loves of Cass McGuire (1966), Lovers (1967), Crystal and Fox (1968), and The Mundy Scheme (1969), he turned more to political themes, relating the dilemmas of Irish life and the troubles in Northern Ireland in such plays as The Freedom of the City (1973), Volunteers (1975), Living Quarters (1977), and Making History (1988). Many of his playsnotably Aristocrats (1979) and Translations (1980), and the Tony award-winning Dancing at Lughnasa (1990)deal with family ties and with mythmaking as a human need.