SOURCE: "The Failed Words of Brian Friel," in Modern Drama, Vol. XL, No. 3., Fall, 1997, pp. 359-373.

In the excerpt below, Krause claims Dancing at Lughnasa "lacks the essential and fulsome poetry and rhythm of dramatic speech" and criticizes Friel for writing a play "that is more attractive to the eye than the ear."

This matter, I think, is of importance, for in countries where the imagination of the people, and the language they use, is rich and living, it is possible for a writer to be rich and copious in his words, and at the same time to give the reality which is the root of all poetry, in a comprehensive and natural form.

—J. M. Synge's Preface to The Playboy of the Western World (1907)

It should not come as a surprise that a play might be both theatrically effective and artistically disappointing at the same time. This...