Attraction Between Yolland and Maria in Translations

The play is set in a hedge-school in a Gaelic-speaking area of northwest Ireland in 1833. It is set in the small Irish town of Baile Beag and concerns itself with the appearance of members of the British Army whose undertaking is to translate place names in the area from ancient Irish Gaelic to the King's English Regarded by many as Brian Friel's theatrical masterpiece, Seamus Deane described Translations as "a sequence of events in history which are transformed by his writing into a parable of events in the present day". Although the play is written and staged entirely in English, the audience has to imagine that the languages used are more than one.

. This clash of cultures which takes place in the play results in a series of misunderstandings and misinterpretations that serve to highlight the fact that language plays a central role in the development of society and civilization.

One of the engineers, the English Lieutenant Yolland, is captivated by Irish culture and believes the work they are doing