The Kill

There is no doubting we are in the thrall of as masterly a dramatist as the theatre possesses.’ The times

It is 1936 and harvest time in county Donegal. In a house just outside the village of ballybeg live the five mundy sisters, barely making ends meet, there ages ranging from twenty-six up to forty. The two male members of the household are brother jack, a missionary priest, repatriated from Africa by his superiors after twenty-five years, and the seven-year-old child of the youngest sister.in depicting two days in the life of this ménage, Brian Friel evokes not simply the interior landscape of a group of human beings trapped in their domestic situation, but the wider landscape, interior and exterior, Christian and pagan, of which they are nonetheless a part.

The series will consist of ten volumes. There will be a supplementary volume on the history and development of the hatchment and any errors and omissions will be dealt with in an addendum when the series is completed.

The voice is original, plain, pained. The context borders on the gothic. The effect is to reveal both magic and menace as being present in the ordinary.