mbf006_bfp019_vtls000826187_020.jpg
The Brian Friel Papers

Don't think in elegiac tones.

In this note, we see the reappearance of Friel’s mantra: ‘Don’t anticipate the ending.’ Characteristically, he has returned to this note with red pen and added some emphatic markings, which he often did for notes he came to regard as being particularly important to the writing process of a given play.

From MS 37,104/1, National Library of Ireland; copyright Brian Friel Estate, reproduced by permission.

Transcription

24 May 1989. A.

Don’t think in elegaic tones. All these people are spirited, even fiery. Don’t anticipate the ending.

Be more precise (in your own mind) about Gerry’s Republicanism. How important is it to him? And how welcome or how foreign is it in that household (Don’t forget Fr. Jack, the chaplain.)

In that final scene – Gerry going to Spain, Rose to London, Fr. Jack to silent senility – does Fr Jack wear his officer’s hat at a drunken angle? Officer’s hat and dishevelled officer’s jacket? Then does Gerry (for Spain) take the jacket? Better – the hat.

The emerging key figures: – 

Fr. Jack (more visual than verbal)

Gerry

Kate

And this other figure that resists clarification and centrality: Gerry’s wife? the good-looking sister? sister-in-law? the absent wife? the dead wife? Christina?

bf_logos_220902a.png
/
Don't anticipate the ending Creative encounters with the Brian Friel Papers

This exhibition is an archive of an archive; and like all good archives, there is no right way to navigate it. Keep clicking on the things that interest you, and don’t worry if you get a little lost a long the way. If you do want to find your way back, check out the index in the menu.

bf_logos_220902a.png

Presented in partnership with the National Library of Ireland