Molly Sweeney
by Brian Friel
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Molly Sweeney, by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel, tells the story of married couple Molly and Frank, who live in a remote Irish village. Molly has been blind since birth, but now a surgeon - Mr. Rice - believes he may be able to restore her sight. In a series of interwoven monologues, Molly Sweeney takes us into the minds of three people with very different expectations of what will happen when Molly regains her vision. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jenny show more Bacon, Robert Breuler and Rick Snyder. show lessTags
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What happens when a middle-aged woman who has been blind her whole life regains her sight? Will she be able to stand the new sensations? This play examines the impact on the woman, her husband, and the surgeon who performed the operation to restore her sight. A larger question lingers over this play, which has to do with the ethics of medical interventions, or at least superficially, but it could be read as a question about who should be the chief "decider" in such a major life change, and do we make decisions based on what we really want? An interesting style of play, as the three characters never interact with each other. The story is told as a series of monologues, as each character remembers key events from their lives. I'm not sure show more this was as effective as it might be; it works on paper, but would it work on stage? show less
1998,Full-Length, 2Males, 1Female
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56+ Works 2,828 Members
Brian Friel was born Bernard Patrick Friel on January 9, 1929 in Killyclogher, Northern Ireland. He graduated from St. Patrick's College. He spent a decade teaching mathematics in Londonderry after deciding that he did not want to become a priest. He gained confidence as a writer when his short stories began to be published in The New Yorker. He show more has published several volumes of short stories including A Saucer of Larks, The Gold in the Sea, and Give Me Your Answer, Do! However, he was better known for writing plays. His plays include Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The Freedom of the City, Faith Healer, Molly Sweeney, The Home Place, Translations, and Wonderful Tennessee. Aristocrats won Best Foreign Play Award from the New York Drama Critics Circle and Dancing at Lughnasa won a Tony Award for best play in 1992. He also translated several plays written by Anton Chekhov and Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. He died on October 2, 2015 at the age of 86. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Reviews
- 3
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- (4.04)
- Languages
- English, German, Italian, Farsi/Persian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 2
