Didaskalia w „Przekładach” Briana Friela

Abstract

Often regarded as purely utilitarian messages with no artistic value in themselves, stage directions are a neglected aspect of theatre studies. This paper seeks to answer the questions “Who speaks in stage directions? How? To whom?”. Looby examines the nature of the speaker, the addressee and their relationship by examining the evolution of stage directions through Shaw, O’Casey and Beckett. However, the paper concentrates primarily on stage directions in Brian Friel’s Translations, arguing that they have an artistic form and function related to the theme of the play and going beyond mere technical instructions to the production crew.