Ballybeg Goes Global
Brian Friel at his boathouse, County Donegal. Photograph by Bobbie Hanvey; courtesy of Boston College.
This is a celebration of Brian Friel's work housed in the National Library. Scholars and performers from across the globe will join in an exploration of how one of Ireland's greatest playwrights continues to inspire audiences around the world.
Marking the 11th anniversary of Friel's death, our second annual event will feature international experts discussing his work alongside unique performances that reveal how his work has travelled and been translated into different languages, cultures and theatrical traditions.
This celebration will occur in two parts across the afternoon and evening. Please find the details of both below.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon seminar Brian Friel and the Global Audience will be convened by Declan Kiberd, Professor Emeritus of Notre Dame University, whose scholarship has helped shape international understanding of Friel's contribution to literature, theatre and cultural life. The seminar will feature academics from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United States who have translated, taught and written studies of Friel's work. Many of their books remain unavailable in English, offering fresh international perspectives on the impact of Friel’s work.
Afternoon session will take place from 2pm - 4:45pm.
Evening Session
Director Patrick Mason, who won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for his Broadway production of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa will act as Master of Ceremonies for the evening performance, Ballybeg Goes Global. This showcases how Friel's work has been reimagined around the world. Featuring performers travelling from Senegal, presenting scenes from a French-language adaptation of Translations, incorporating West African musical traditions and djembe drumming. It will also include Hēmi Kelly from New Zealand performing excerpts from his translation of Friel's work into te reo Māori and French actor Jérôme Pouly, known for his work with the prestigious Comédie-Française, who will perform a scene from Faith Healers in French.
The evening session will last from 6 - 7pm.
[Translations will be available for these performances.]
Brian Friel Day
Declan Kiberd is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English and Irish Language and Literature Emeritus, Notre Dame. Professor Kiberd earned his doctoral degree in Oxford and during his distinguished career taught in the University of Kent, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin and lectured in over 30 countries. A leading international authority on the literature of Ireland, both in English and Irish, he has authored many books. In 2019, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2022, he co-edited The Book About Everything with Enrico Terrinoni and Catherine Wilsdonin celebration of the centenary of Ulysses.
Dr. Virginie Roche-Tiengo, PhD is an Associate Professor in Irish Studies at the University d’Artois. She has published articles on Irish drama, in particular the work of Brian Friel, but also Thomas Kilroy, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Marina Carr, Frank McGuinness, Charles Macklin and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She is a member of scientific committees for the organization of international colloquia in Ireland, the United States, France, Spain and Argentina, and has chaired debates at conferences in Japan, Italy, Ireland and France. Her research also focuses on the interaction between law and theatre. In 2025, she co-organized a symposium at Boston College Dublin on the involvement of women in political, cultural and economic life in 19th century Ireland.
Maria Gaviña-Costero is a lecturer in the Department of English and German at the University of Valencia (Spain), where she completed her PhD thesis on the dramatic works of Brian Friel. She has published several scholarly articles and book chapters in both Spanish and English on Northern Irish literature and its reception in Spain. She has also published two books on Brian Friel: Érase una vez Ballybeg (2011), and El teatro de Brian Friel: bailando entre la ficción y la memoria (2025), and has co-edited the two-volume collection ‘Lost, Unhappy and at Home’: The Impact of Violence on Irish Culture (2024).
Stefan Kroner is a German Theater Dramaturg and Translator. He studied New German Literature and Theatre Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Master’s thesis on Brian Friel („Der Irische Dramatiker Brian Friel auf den Deutschen Bühnen“). Since 1996 he has worked on productions for Schauspiel Düsseldorf, Schauspiel Bonn, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Renaissance-Theater Berlin, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin, Schauspielhaus Zurich as well as the Wiener Festwochen and the Royal National Theatre London. Since the 2006/07 season, he has been a dramaturg at the Ernst Deutsch Theater, Hamburg. A translator of works of Anton Burge, Morris Panych, David Hare, Ronald Harwood, Anders Lustgarten, Anna Ziegler and Marina Carr.
Alessandra Ruggiero is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Teramo, where she teaches Modern and Contemporary Drama in English. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary English and Irish literature, with particular interests in theatre, performance, memory, voice, and the relationship between literature and media. She has worked extensively on Brian Friel since 2014, presenting her research at national and international conferences. In 2022, she contributed a critical introduction and Italian translations of three plays to Brian Friel, TEATRO – Volume 1. Her work on Friel explores language, performance, music, and adaptation.
Kelly Matthews is Professor of English at Framingham State University (Massachusetts, USA) and past president of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Her book Brian Friel: Beginnings was published by Four Courts Press in 2024. Her previous books are The Bell Magazine and the Representation of Irish Identity and The Country of the Young: Interpretations of Youth and Childhood in Irish Culture.
Hēmi Kelly (Māori and Irish descent) is a Māori writer, translator and language educator from Aotearoa New Zealand. He specialises in te reo Māori (the Māori language) and is a licensed translator and interpreter. His published translations include Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Witi Ihimaera’s Sleeps Standing, and Brian Friel’s Translations, which were commissioned by the Embassy of Ireland in New Zealand and published in 2022. Hēmi is also the author of A Māori Word a Day and A Māori Phrase a Day, and the creator of Everyday Māori, an online platform that includes a podcast dedicated to sharing and promoting Māori language learning resources.
Jérôme Pouly is an actor, author and director trained at the CNSAD, Talent Cannes in 1998, who joined the Comédie-Française the same year and became its 510th member, leading a rich career until 2024. He performs a vast classical and contemporary repertoire (Molière, Shakespeare, Feydeau, Hugo, Rostand, Brecht, Marivaux, Chekhov...) under the direction of many European and international directors, as well as film and television. In 2018, he co-founded with Frédéric Gasnier the itinerant company "Avec Cœur & Panache", dedicated to theatre in rural areas, where he created three remarkable almost one-man shows: "La cuisine des auteurs", M de Molière, and the latest, La fantaisie des Schumanns.
Berengere Brooks is a UK-trained Franco-British director and playwright who has lived and worked in East and West Africa for over 15 years. She is the founder and artistic director of Brrr Production, a Dakar-based theatre company creating socially engaged work rooted in contemporary African realities. Her productions explore migration, feminism, press freedom, colonialism or social justice, combining humour with a strong theatrical language. She writes original plays and adapts classical works to contemporary African context, presenting her work across Senegal and internationally.
Ibrahima Diouf, known as Birame, is a Senegalese actor from Saint-Louis. Trained in acting, improvisation, clowning and forum theatre, he has worked with several theatre companies and participated in international training programmes. He currently collaborates with Phoenix Company and joined Brrr Production for Translations, playing Lieutenant Yolland, a British officer.
David Abraham Diémé is a Senegalese actor and director from Ziguinchor and a member of Bou-saana Theatre Company since 2004. He has performed internationally and worked with renowned directors on numerous productions. He is also actively involved in developing the regional theatre scene. He joins Brrr Production for the first time for Translations, playing Owen.
Dial Thiam is a Senegalese actor from Dakar whose career spans theatre, film and television. Trained at the Macodou Mbengue Academy, he has performed at major national and international festivals and built a strong career in film and television. He has been working with Brrr Production since 2019 and plays Manus in Translations by Brian Friel.
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