Translations

From the sweet hard bosom of Ireland comes some of the world’s most beloved playwrights — John Synge, Samuel Beckett and Martin McDonagh. They’ve all changed our understanding of what a play can be. Right alongside these giants stands Brian Friel, whose tender Translations became a hit when it opened in Ireland in 1980. Part love story, part political rumination, the script is set in the early 1800s and tells what happens when a group of British soldiers arrives in a Gaelic-speaking county in Ireland to translate all the place names into English. Love blooms from unlikely soil when an Irish girl falls in love with an English soldier. Add in a town full of oddballs, including a word-loving schoolteacher who tips a few back, and you’ve got a play that Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called “nothing short of glorious.” See the Irish glory today at 8 p.m. Through March 22. Main Street Theater, 2540 Times Boulevard. For information and a full schedule, call 713–524–6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $20 to $35.
Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Starts: Feb. 28. Continues through March 23, 2008