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Lovers, by Brian Friel

This play tells the sad story of Irish teenagers Joe and Mag, who are expecting a child. The structure of the play adds to the sadness, as from the beginning two characters narrate that Joe and Mag will disappear and later be found drowned. As the audience watches Joe and Mag study together on a hill, laughing and arguing, they know this will be their final day alive. The play has an air of Greek tragedy, as the inevitable tragic ending is known from the start due to the narrators, but the audience still hopes for a better outcome.

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George LaCroix
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3K views1 page

Lovers, by Brian Friel

This play tells the sad story of Irish teenagers Joe and Mag, who are expecting a child. The structure of the play adds to the sadness, as from the beginning two characters narrate that Joe and Mag will disappear and later be found drowned. As the audience watches Joe and Mag study together on a hill, laughing and arguing, they know this will be their final day alive. The play has an air of Greek tragedy, as the inevitable tragic ending is known from the start due to the narrators, but the audience still hopes for a better outcome.

Uploaded by

George LaCroix
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A sad sad play.

Not only is the plot sad, but the structure of the play adds to the sadness. It is the story of two Irish teenagers – Joe
and Mag. They are 17. She is pregnant. They are going to be married in 3 weeks. They sit on top of a hill and study for their final
exams. Mag is a chatter-box, not interested in school. Joe is serious, and kind of burdened down by his life – he needs to do well on
his exams so that he can get a good job.

Two other characters – Man and Woman – sit off to the sidelines of Joe and Mag’s scenes and occasionally, the lights will go down
on Joe and Mag and come up on Man and Woman, who both hold open books in their laps – They sometimes refer to the books as
they speak – as they tell the ending of the story. Joe and Mag end up disappearing – the town searches for them – and finally, their
drowned bodies are found on the shore of a nearby lake.

So as we Joe and Mag fighting and laughing and studying on the hill – we know that something dreadful happened to them. We
know it from the beginning of the play – because it opens with Man and Woman describing the events, almost like a police report.
The knowledge that this time up on the hill is the last day Joe and Mag will be alive colors the entire play. It’s really sad.

You can see that Joe and Mag have “relationship issues” – he feels trapped into marrying her, he’s scared of her pregnancy, she feels
lost and alone – she wants to talk, he doesn’t – she tries to force him to share his feelings – but then occasionally, the problems will
melt away and they’ll start laughing like little kids about something.

A sad play – it has the feeling of a Greek tragedy – the same sort of inevitability. You know that the ending will be bad – because the
Man and Woman keep coming in and reciting facts, like an obituary in a newspaper – but you can’t help but hope that everything
will work out.

Here’s a scene where Mag lies asleep on the hill and Joe starts opening up to her. Of course he can only do so because she is asleep.

From Lovers, by Brian Friel

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