1 - The Irish Press essays, 1962–1963: Alien and native

Summary

The early 1960s was a period of considerable professional risk and maturation for Brian Friel, when his artistic future seemed poised between the writing of drama or fiction. Because of a series of artistic successes in the late 1950s, Friel had the courage in 1960 to leave teaching as his full-time occupation and attempt a career as writer. In 1958, BBC Northern Ireland broadcast his radio plays A Sort of Freedom and To This Hard House, while his talent as a writer of stories was confirmed in 1959 when he secured a contract with The New Yorker (O'Brien, 2; Dantanus, 39). During the following few years, he divided his energies between writing short stories and plays; however, his eventual decision to devote himself to the theater appeared increasingly unlikely as the 1960s commenced.

A Doubtful Paradise was staged by the Group Theatre of Belfast in 1959, but the production was poorly received and soon closed. In fact, Friel later admitted that “It was a dreadful play. I don't think the Group Company collapsed because of it, but it didn't do them any good!” (BFC, 7). This aura of inadequacy regarding his plays was succinctly expressed in December 1962 when an Irish Press headline referred to him as one of two “Abbey Rejects,” in an article announcing that his play The Blind Mice was selected for production by Phyllis Ryan's Orion company to be staged at Dublin's Eblana Theatre (Ward, “Test,” 8).