Lovers (play) - Losers

Losers

Losers is a play about two older lovers, Hanna and Andy, who are trying to make a relationship while having Hanna's mother, Mrs Wilson, and Cissy, next door neighbour, watching them constantly. Mrs Wilson and Cissy are very Catholic and do not think it is appropriate for Hanna's and Andy's relationship to continue. Mrs Wilson tries to break up their relationship by constantly ringing her bell, and wanting prayers. Towards the end of the play Andy comes home drunk and taunts Mrs Wilson and Andy that they're "Heads a marly" - a reference to the Saint Philomena whom Mrs Wilson is devout to. With this action Hanna proclaims "you'll regret this day Andy Tracey, you'll regret this day as long as you live". In the end Andy and Hanna are still together, however, they are stuck in a loveless marriage - divorce was frowned upon at the time - making them the Losers of the play.

Works by Brian Friel
Plays
  • A Doubtful Paradise (unpublished, 1960)
  • The Enemy Within (1962)
  • The Blind Mice (unpublished, 1963)
  • Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964)
  • The Loves of Cass McGuire (1966)
  • Lovers: Winners and Losers (1967)
  • Crystal and Fox (1968)
  • The Mundy Scheme (1969)
  • The Gentle Island (1971)
  • The Freedom of the City (1973)
  • Volunteers (1975)
  • Living Quarters (1977)
  • Faith Healer (1979)
  • Aristocrats (1979)
  • Translations (1980)
  • American Welcome (7-minute one-act play, 1981)
  • The Communication Cord (1982)
  • Making History (1988)
  • Dancing at Lughnasa (1990)
  • Wonderful Tennessee (1993)
  • Molly Sweeney (1994)
  • Give Me Your Answer, Do! (1997)
  • Afterplay (one-act play, 2002)
  • Performances (70-minute one-act play, 2003)
  • The Home Place (2005)
Radio plays
  • A Sort of Freedom (unpublished, 1958)
  • To This Hard House (unpublished, 1958)
Television plays
  • The Founder Members (unpublished, 1964)
  • Three Fathers, Three Sons (unpublished, 1964)
  • Farewell to Ardstraw (unpublished BBC TV play, 1976)
  • The Next Parish (unpublished BBC TV play, 1976)
Adaptations
  • Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov translation, 1981)
  • Fathers and Sons (Ivan Turgenev adaptation, 1987)
  • The London Vertigo (Charles Macklin adaptation, 1991)
  • A Month in the Country (Turgenev adaptation, 1992)
  • Uncle Vanya (Chekhov adaptation, 1998)
  • The Yalta Game (one-act Chekhov adaptation, 2001)
  • The Bear (one-act Chekhov adaptation, 2002)
  • Hedda Gabler (Henrick Ibsen adaptation, 2008)
Related articles
  • Ballybeg
  • Brian Friel Theatre
  • Field Day Theatre Company
  • Saoi

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Famous quotes containing the word losers:

    “Nihilism as a symptom that the losers have no more consolation: that they destroy in order to be destroyed, that without morality they no longer have any reason to “resign themselves”Mthat they put themselves on the level of the opposite principle and for their part also want power in that they compel the mighty to be their hangmen. This is the European form of Buddhism, renunciation, once all existence has lost its “meaning.””
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “In the game of love, the losers are more celebrated than the winners.”
    —Mason Cooley (b. 1927)