Field Day Theatre Company And The Translation Of Irish National Identity-Interpreting Translations And Pentecost

Ireland is a nation who enjoys long-term literary tradition, but at the same time, she also suffers800years’colonial history. Thus the historical memory still distresses contemporary Ireland and Irish people."The Troubles" touched every corner of Irish society and scarred Irish people’s mind. The questions of how to deal with "The Troubles" worried artistes and intellectuals in every medium throughout whole Ireland.Field Day, founded in1980, represents an attempt by six Northern artists and intellectuals—Brian Friel, Stephen Rea, Seamus Heaney, Seamus Deane, Tom Paulin and David Hammond-to respond to the unsettled political situation in the Province in a manner which seemes to them socially, morally, and creatively responsible. Field Day, on one hand, inherits Abbey Theatre’s tradition, to establish a discourse separating from English hegemony, on the other hand, it transcends the crippling oppositions of Irish politics, to create a hybrid space through "translation".Language and religion are two indispensible factors in the construction of national identity, which have a more important influence on the post-colonial Irish Identity. Translations and Pentecost are two Field Day plays that directly deal with the Irish Language Questions and religious conflicts in modern Ireland. Translations is hailed as "an instant national classic","a watershed in Irish theatre", which elaborates that when facing with British cultural imperialism, Irish people should take a "translation" attitude to transcend the cultural difference and reconstruct a hybrid Irish cultural identity. Pentecost had been the hit of the Dublin Theatre Festival and had gone on in1976, won London’s Evening Standard Award for Best New Comer and the Harvey’s Best Play of the Year Award. It seeks to articulate a way of living through religious conflicts, by "translation"—seeking dialogue and reconciliation, territorially, interpersonally and chronologically.This paper will borrow several core concepts of post-colonial theories and cultural study theories, to analyze Translations, Pentecost, in the background of Field Day Theatre Company. By adopting close reading method and thick description method, this paper will try to combine the text study with cultural-historical approach to explore the thematic characteristics and cultural value of Translations and Pentecost, and to further discuss the efforts and solutions that Field Day Theatre Company proposed to reconstruct the contemporary Irish cultural and religious identities.