// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy was "Making History" a play on words? It staged events.
| Making History | |
|---|---|
 Script cover | |
| Original language | English |
| Written by | Brian Friel |
| Characters | Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone Mabel Bagenal Harry Hoveden Hugh Roe O'Donnell Mary Bagenal Peter Lombard |
| Subject | Irish nationalism, Nine Years' War, historiography |
| Genre | History play |
| Setting | Dungannon, Sperrin Mountains and Rome, 1590s |
| Premiere | |
| Date | September 20, 1988 |
| Place | Guildhall, Derry |
Making History is a 1988 play written by Irish playwright Brian Friel, which premiered at the Guildhall, Derry on 20 September 1988.[1] It focuses on the life and legacy of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who led a combined Irish-Spanish alliance against the English during the Nine Years' War. The play is set before and after the Battle of Kinsale. The battle does not directly feature in the play, although it is central to the plot.
The play's other main theme is O'Neill's unexpected third marriage to the much younger Anglo-Irish Protestant Mabel Bagenal, daughter and sister of two of his most implacable enemies, which the play presents as a genuine though ill-fated love marriage.[2]
Characters
[edit]| Character | Original production | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Hugh O'Neill | Stephen Rea | [3][4][5] |
| Harry Hovenden | Niall O'Brien | [4][5] |
| Hugh O'Donnell | Peter Gowen | [4][5] |
| Archbishop Lombard | Niall Tóibín | [3][4][5] |
| Mabel Bagenal | Clare Holman | [3][4][5] |
| Mary Bagenal | Emma Dewhurst | [3][4][5] |
References
[edit]- ↑ "PROGRAMME: Making History, by Brian Friel (1988)". Field Day. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
- ↑ Peacock, Alan J. (1993). The Achievement of Brian Friel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-86140-349-3.
- 1 2 3 4 Morgan, Hiram (2007). "Playing the Earl: Brian Friel's "Making History"". History Ireland. 15 (4): 62–63. ISSN 0791-8224. JSTOR 27725661.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Production of Making History". Theatricalia. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Making History". Playography Ireland. Irish Theatre Institute. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
Further reading
[edit]- Campbell, Patrick J. (1989). "Brian Friel's 'Making History'". Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society. 13 (2): 291–293. ISSN 0488-0196. JSTOR 29742391.
- Costero, Maria Gaviña (2016). "When Heroes Become Heroines: Brian Friel Re-Makes History". Nordic Irish Studies. 15 (1): 41–57. ISSN 1602-124X. JSTOR 44363743.
- Crowley, Tony (2008). "Memory and Forgetting in a Time of Violence: Brian Friel's Meta-History Plays". Estudios Irlandeses (3). Scripps Faculty Publications and Research: 72–83. doi:10.24162/EI2008-2991.
- Dennis, Mary Kate Lowrey (1992). The Irish theatre of Brian Friel: Texts and contexts (PDF). Greensboro, North Carolina.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - de Souza, Michelle Andressa Alvarenga (August 2024). "A purposeful reshaping of a National hero: an analysis of the history and exile of Hugh O'Neill in Brian Friel's play Making History". International Journal of Arts and Social Science. 7 (8): 155–161. ISSN 2581-7922.
- Fermino, Victor (15 April 2022). "The Time and Narrative of Making History: How Brian Friel Presented Hugh O' Neill as the Leopold Bloom of Historiography". ABEI Journal. 24 (2): 45–54. doi:10.11606/issn.2595-8127.v24i2p45-54. ISSN 2595-8127.
- Fogarty, Anne (2002). "The Romance of History: Renegotiating the past in Thomas Kilroy's "The O'Neill" and Brian Friel's "Making History"". Irish University Review. 32 (1): 18–32. ISSN 0021-1427. JSTOR 25517175.
- Hewson, Helen, ed. (2003). Brian Friel Papers (PDF).
- Mazhar, Amal Aly (2019). ""Revisiting or Inventing History? The Cases of Brian Friel's Making History (1988) and Mahmoud Diyab's Gate to Conquest" (1971)" (PDF). Annals of the Faculty of Arts. 47. Ain Shams University: 1–17. doi:10.21608/aafu.2021.171624. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2024.
- McNally, Frank (27 May 2016). "All chieftains great and small – An Irishman's Diary about Hugh O'Neill (and some of his followers)". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- Morgan, Hiram (25 February 2000), O'Faoláin's Great O'Neill (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2024
- Morgan, Hiram (2016). "The Long Shadow of Seán Ó Faoláin's Great O'Neill". Dúiche Néill: Journal of the O'Neill Country Historical Society. XXIII: 19–26.
- Pelletier, Martine (1994). "Telling Stories and Making History: Brian Friel and Field Day". Irish University Review. 24 (2): 186–197. ISSN 0021-1427. JSTOR 25484619.
- Richtarik, Marilynn (2019). "Forging a Usable Past: Brian Friel's Making History". ELH. 86 (4): 1089–1123. doi:10.1353/elh.2019.0040. ISSN 0013-8304. JSTOR 26866629.
- Ricketts, Elizabeth (February 2020). "Disrupting Mythological Foundations of Identity: Hugh O'Neill, Making History, and the Troubles". Critical Inquiries into Irish Studies. 2 (1). doi:10.70531/2576-6414.1004.
- Sloan, Barry (1 September 1994). "'The overall thing': Brian Friel's 'making history'". Irish Studies Review. 2 (8): 12–16. doi:10.1080/09670889408455448.
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