Philadelphia, Here I Come: Friel's Split Man on Stage
Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come premiered at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre on September 28, 1964, and it put two actors inside one man. Public Gar faces the world; Private Gar says everything his counterpart cannot. This episode unpacks the split-self device, the kitchen scene where a father's only attempt at love is advice about sitting at the back of an airplane, and the speech about loving his son that S.B. O'Donnell delivers to the housekeeper instead. Then we follow the play's reception — from Oscar Lowenstein buying it sight unseen for the West End, to David Merrick's Broadway…
The skinny
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