Special tributes were paid to the late playwright Brian Friel at Tuesday night's opening of the 25th anniversary production of Dancing at Lughnasa at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre.
The much-loved playwright passed away last week aged 86 and was laid to rest on Sunday in Glenties in Co. Donegal.
The Tony award winning play, about the five Mundy sisters and their brother Father Jack who has returned home from missionary duties, was first staged in the Abbey Theatre in 1990. It later transferred to Broadway and was made in a successful movie starring Meryl Streep and Michael Gambon.
The new production is presented by the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and last night the show's producer Jimmy Fay paid warm tribute to Friel after the show's opening performance at the Gaiety.
Picture: Bobby Harvey
In his eulogy, Fay said Friel was rightfully recognised as "the Master playwright, the heir to Chekhov, to Synge, to O'Casey. He made the local universal. Ballybeg in all his finely drawn detail became our, the audiences, village of life in its loves, its betrayals.
"Carrying on a tradition of exploring the human condition through personal tragic narrative and alerting us to the political mis-use of language, where the mystery of words was administrated out to flatness. He rescued our collective imaginations by been so detailed in his observance of our human frailties and spirit," Fay added.
The cast of Dancing at Lughnasa at last night's performance
He also praised Friel's determination as an artist to examine history and in particular the escalating political situation in Northern Ireland.
"At a time when the north looked like a great, heartbreaking, headache full of bombs and death, Friel and other artists inspired by him offered a different perspective he rescued the humanity, the great spirit of a people from the 'wrecking ball' of history."
Dancing at Lughnasa runs at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin from October 6 to 11.
