16th - 19th November 2024

Aristocrats - Brian Friel

Directed by Ger Fitzgibbon

“Life is a comedy to those who think; a tragedy to those who feel.” 

This famous observation could almost summarise the atmosphere or Brian Friel’s Aristocrats, where – between the sarcastic commentary of Eamon, the son-in-law, the passionate piano playing of young Claire and the forensic interrogation of a visiting historian – sadness, comedy and music intermingle freely.

Aristocrats belongs with a cluster of remarkable works (including Faith Healer and Translations) that Brian Friel produced in the late ‘seventies.  Of these, Aristocrats is the closest in style and tone to Friel’s beloved Chekhov for it conjures up an image of an Irish Catholic Big House in decline, refusing to face familial and historical change. The Northern Troubles may rumble in the background but here in the Big House there is Chopin, played by the youngest daughter as if her life depended on it, and counterpointed with the sarcastic commentary of Eamon, her brother-in-law.  Under the scrutiny of a visiting historian, the myths that have sustained the family for so long begin to crumble but in Aristocrats, as in Chekhov, comedy and sadness mingle and collide, and the elegiac tone is shot through with the comic foibles of the human.

Tickets available on Eventbrite 

Full Cast:

Willie Diver                    Mike Cronin

Tam Hoffnung                Ruben Keane

Uncle George                 John McCaffrey

Casimir                          Charlie Crowley

Alice                              Denise O’Carroll

Eamon                           Eric Browne

Claire                             Rosemarie O’Byrne

Judith                            Ber Madden

Father                            John McCaffrey

Anna’s Voice                   Jennifer O’Shea