Nicosia, Cyprus. Thoc has premiered a new production of Brian Friel’s 1980 play Translations, using English for the British officers and the Cypriot dialect for the local characters. The production opened on Saturday night in Nicosia and runs until May 15, with additional performances in other cities.
Production and casting
Graham Butler plays Lieutenant Yolland and Nigel Hastings plays Captain Lancey, two British army officers who arrive in rural Ireland in the 1830s to map the area and anglicise local place-names. Butler and Hastings, both experienced actors in the UK, are the only imports in the show and deliver their lines in English.
The rest of the cast, playing Irish villagers, are Cypriots performing in the Cypriot dialect, which Butler and Hastings do not speak or barely speak. Director Patrick Myles said the two actors are “creatively lost in their surroundings” in a way that mirrors their characters.
Language approach and translation
Friel described Translations as “a play about language,” and Myles referenced Friel’s diary as saying the “ultimate irony” was writing the play in English when it should have been written in Irish. Myles said the concept is better served by using two languages, with British officers and Irish locals each speaking in their own tongue.
In this production, Greek Cypriot replaces Gaelic. Myles co-translated the play with associate director Andreas Tselepos, who also plays Owen.
Character dynamics onstage
Hastings said Butler is trying to learn the Cypriot dialect, aligning with Yolland’s trajectory in the play, while Hastings said he deliberately does not, aligning with Lancey’s approach. Lancey is portrayed as more hard-headed, while Yolland goes native and falls in love with a local girl, Maire.
Wider context and previous stagings
Myles said dividing the languages has been done before, including in pairings such as Polish and Czech, and Spanish and Catalan. The play has been staged outside Britain and Ireland and is associated with themes of imperialism, occupation and subjugation.
A Guardian article dated Oct. 29, 2025, highlighted a production in Senegal, adding that Translations has been re-imagined across the world, including in apartheid South Africa and in Maori and Ukrainian productions. The Senegalese show was in French.
What do you think the two-language staging adds to this production of Translations?
