MY favourite Brian Friel are those in which the balance is tilted towards people rather than issues, particularly those of a political or national kind.
For that reason, Translations, with its strands of British domination and the suppression of Irish culture, has seemed to me a lesser work than, say Dancing at Lughnasa. But it has its own undeniable strengths, sufficient to make it a durable and entertaining drama.
The new production at the Abbey goes some way to counter my bias, if such it be, by giving the smaller roles - none of them insignificant - real depth and conviction.
The opening scenes in the Ballybeg hedge school introduces many of them; the lame teacher Manus (Gary Lydon), his inarticulate pupil Sarah (Dawn Bradfield), the comic scholar Jimmy Jack (Derry Power), his hoped for wife Maire (Ali White), the boisterous Doalty (Frank Laverty) and the local girl Bridget (Siobhan Miley).
These are all performances in depth, credible people in an absorbing environment. They are joined by others of equal persuasiveness: Manus's brother Owen (Lloyd Hutchinson), home from England as adviser to the British army unit revising the traditional placenames; his friend Lieutenant Yolland (Philip Glenister), and Captain Lancy (Gareth Forwood).
There is real conviction in the relationships established between the two groups, fostered, by the author's inspired linguistic device at the heart of the play's construction.
The lead role is that of the schoolmaster Hugh, father of Manus and Owen, an alcoholic master of the classics who dominates sons and students by force of erudition and innate authority.
Here the part is taken by Kenneth Haigh, who from the start projects an aura of, well, Englishness - not merely a matter of accent - which distances him from and diminishes the force of his character.
Notwithstanding some technical strengths in his performance, it lacks accessibility and, ultimately, conviction.
The final scene, which relies so much on Hugh, is short on impact, a dying fall of some obscurity. It is a pity the production, directed by Robin Lefevre against an excellent set design by Julian McGowan, and with so many enjoyable elements, should fall short of its potential through one significant deficit; but that's the name of the casting game.
