A NOTE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, JIMMY FAY

There's a startling moment midway through Translations when the young English officer Yolland reflects to his friend and guide Owen how he was supposed to have joined the East Indan Company and should have ended up in Bombay rather than looking wistfully over the silvery sands of the Tra Bhan and falling in love in Ballybeg The poetic Yolland is doomed in Ireland Would he have been as doomed in India? He is, after all, a reluctant member of an army viewed by the local population as invasive.

India and Ireland share a history of colonisation, revolutions and partitions and all that lies in the shadow of a 20th-century constructed border. India is so vast and diverse in heritage, culture and languages that Northern Ireland must seem like a quarrelling village beside it

That's why I am immensely grateful to the British Council for funding this reading. It has been a privilege to have this chance to work with this fantastic company from Mumbai called Rage and watch our Lyric actors work closely over zoom with their actors on this textured and ever revealing masterpiece. There have been fresh discoveries in a play I know well as it is explored by these wonderful actors under the expert guidance and gentle prodding of the director, Arghya Lahiri. It’s been fascinating to see the similarities in approach and occasionally the differences.

Covid has been devastating in so many ways this past year and derailed so many theatre projects Still, it also offered us this opportunity to connect, discuss and explore digitally for the past few months on two different continents In both our countries we went through different waves of lockdown, worried for the health and safety of each other and always continued working via zoom together. I am immensely grateful to Padraig Cusack for introducing me to the dynamic Shernaz Patel and pointing us in the direction of the British Council grant. I also want to thank Anne Friel for allowing us to work on this powerful play in such a unique way

The next steps will be to bring Rage to Belfast. And perhaps a real trip to Baile Beag is not out of the question, and maybe then it's finally time to bring Yolland to Mumbai.

I hope you enjoy this reading. Thank you for attending.

Jimmy Fay Executive Producer Lyric Theatre, Belfast. June ‘21