“If dancing is the alternative to language, has language been inadequate for these people? Has language failed these people? Has language betrayed these people?”

Quote

Related Manuscript

Has language failed these people?

The idea that words are not enough was something that followed Friel through his writing career, and informed many of his most well-known plays.

The Creative Process

Lucia Kickham, 'Dance is...'

In this audio file, Lucia Kickham reads aloud from a group automatic writing exercise in which participants responded to the prompts ‘language is’, ‘music is’, and ‘dance is’.

“Has the play its own reality?” – Brian Friel

The Creative Process

Robbie Blake's blue notebook, 1

In this page from Robbie Blake’s project notebooks, Robbie adapts a phrase from Friel’s archives, ‘So the play should grow in joyousness’.

“Now is it coming together?” – Brian Friel

The Creative Process

Dance solos, 31 August 2020

These are early versions of dance solos by Lucia Kickham, Marion Cronin, and Sarah Ryan. Each solo was created using some of the listening and responding techniques developed by Jessie Keenan and adapted for Zoom workshops held in April 2020.