ABSTRACT
An investigation into the formation of the Field Day Theatre Company reveals how, in the tradition of the Abbey, Irish dramatists of the late twentieth century sought to establish a discourse separate from English hegemony. One such collective is Ireland's Field Day Theatre Company, whose primary goal remains to re-conceptualize 'historical experiences which had once been based on the geographical separation of people and cultures' as a result of colonization. At the forefront of this reformulation in contemporary Northern Ireland is Brian Friel's Translations; for it refashions William Shakespeare's concepts dealing with the inherent difficulties of linguistic, political, and cultural issues of colonial intervention and gaelicizes these issues. Just as the language of the colonizer becomes more harmful and diabolical with each play in Shakespeare's Henriad, culminating with Henry V, Lancey's message conjures the same harshness and hints of domination.
