Language and translation serve as powerful tropes for colonial ownership in Brian Friel’s “Translations” currently playing at Irish Repertory Company through Sunday. December 31, 2023. Headmaster Hugh (Sean McGinley) of the hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag/Balleybeg the Irish-speaking community in County Donegal and his eldest son Manus (Owen Campbell) teach Irish, Latin and Greek to the local students.

Daily lessons by the drunk-most-of-the-time Hugh are interrupted by the arrival of Englishman Lieutenant Yolland (Raffi Barsoumian) and his English commander Captain Lancey (Rufus Collins) who have been sent to Ireland as part of the Ordnance Survey. Hugh’s youngest son Owen (Seth Numrich) has been employed by the British army to help Yolland anglicize the Irish place names around the village.

Owen quickly comes to realize that England’s anglicizing local place names is only part of the continued presence of British culture and language which is the government’s attempts at colonization. The English place names signify colonial ownership not only of the landscape, but also the people who inhabit it. Captain Lancey exemplifies the arrogance of the British. Lieutenant Yolland is more sympathetic to Ireland’s point of view and often sides with Manus when he attempts to question Lancy. After falling in love with Maire (Mary Wiseman), Yolland mysteriously disappears prompting Lancey to threaten the village with its destruction.

With “Translations,” Brian Friel has constructed a strong political drama with believable characters whose individual and collective conflicts drive a compelling and prescient plot. Colonialism continues to threaten the autonomy and agency of nation-states globally and imperialism and fascism loom large on the political stage in the United States and elsewhere.

Doug Hughes directs Friels most political work with sense and sensibility. He handles the tinderbox of resentment and fear present in the oppressed population of Friels fictional Ballybeg where the continued presence of British culture and language epitomize the erosion of Irish culture and language.

The detailed scenic design by Charlie Corcoran, the authentic costume design by Alejo Vietti, and the often-subdued lighting design by Michael Gottlieb serve to heighten the plight of the oppressed population of Ballybeg.