Philadelphia, Here I come is a play that was written by Brian Friel in 1964, the action of the play takes place in Ballybeg, a fictional village in County Donegal, Ireland. Ballybeg is a very small village that has very little work and opportunities for young people other than work with their family on the land or a small family business, there is also very little social life in the village, the only things to do is visit neighbours, go to church, have some drinks at the local small hotel or go to a country dance at the local hall. Even the name of the village suggests that it is small, the Irish for Ballybeg, Baile Beag means ‘small town’.
Friel uses several dramatic techniques in the play; the most noticeable one is the use of two different actors to play Gar’s character. One of these represents Gar’s public character, the one that every other character on the stage can see, hear and interact with. The other, ‘private Gar’ represents Gar’s private self, this part of him shows us, the audience, what Gar is thinking and his emotions and feelings. This technique allows us to enter Gar’s personal life, his interior and his deepest emotions and feelings, we first hear private Gar speak in episode one when he says “and it’s all about to begin. It’s all over” once private Gar says this public and private initiate a conversation with each other, this is the first time we see public acknowledge private Gar. Public Gar is quite a shy, sullen and reticent. Private Gar, however, is much different than public Gar, private is witty, talkative and shrewd, private shows the audience how Gar really feels about the other characters in the play, this is probably because none of the other characters can hear him. Friels use of public and private Gar helps us understand Gar greatly. Another technique