Events with Irish theme dominate Princeton agenda

"Tranlations" is focus of McCarter Live at the Library

By: Hilary Parker
   "Translations," a piece by Tony Award-winning playwright Brian Friel that chronicles the outside influence on villagers in 19th-century Ireland, will be the subject of the next "McCarter Live at the Library" event from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Community Room of the Princeton Public Library.
   Director Garry Hynes, the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Director, will be joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning Princeton University Professor Paul Muldoon to discuss McCarter’s production.
   Running Oct. 8 to Oct. 29, "Translations" will coincide with an upcoming symposium, exhibition and series of performances at the university in celebration of Irish theater. Together, Ms. Hynes and Professor Muldoon will discuss Irish history, community, colonialism, identity and language.
   The university events were arranged in celebration of Princeton’s new collection of Irish theater, recently donated by alumnus Leonard L. Milberg in honor of Professor Muldoon, the founding chair of the new University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.
   At 6 p.m. on Oct. 6, Professor Muldoon will appear at the annual Friends of the Princeton Public Library benefit in Nassau Presbyterian Church to read the poetry of Seamus Heaney — though he was originally scheduled only to introduce Mr. Heaney, his friend and fellow poet.
   "We’re very grateful that Mr. Muldoon graciously offered to step in when personal circumstances forced Mr. Heaney to postpone his appearance," said Claire R. Jacobus, president of the Friends Council, in a written release. "We look forward to hearing Mr. Muldoon read the work of his friend and hope to be able to host Mr. Heaney another time in the near future."
   As for Professor Muldoon, he has long been a fan of his countryman.
   "Seamus and I were brought up only a few miles apart, though he’s 12 years older," Professor Muldoon said in an interview in the June issue of "The Friends Newsletter."
   "One of the reasons why I was first attracted to his work was because he was writing about a world I recognized, a world of bogs and frogs and men who lived by the spade — though always, of course, with a little edge of something one didn’t quite recognize," Professor Muldoon said. "He continues to be a huge influence, as a man as much as a poet."
   Tickets for "Paul Muldoon Reads the Poetry of Seamus Heaney" are $25, $15 for students and seniors. Benefactor and patron tickets, which include dinner and the "Quintessentially Princeton" auction at the library following the talk, are $250 and $150, respectively. For more information or to order tickets, call the Friends of the Princeton Public Library at (609) 924-9529, ext. 280.