Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a 1964 play by Irish dramatist Brian Friel. Set in the fictional town of Ballybeg, County Donegal, the play launched Friel onto the international stage. The play was first staged at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on September 28, 1964.
In 1966, in the United States, it ran for 326 performances, and received several Tony Award nominations, including for Best Play and Best Director. The play has since been produced and performed numerous times throughout the years.
Plot
Philadelphia, Here I Come! centres on Gareth (Gar) O'Donnell's move to America, specifically Philadelphia. The play takes place on the night before and morning of Gar's departure to America. Gar is portrayed by two characters, Gar Public ("the Gar that people see, talk to, talk about") and Gar Private ("the unseen man, the man within, the conscience"). Gareth lives with his father, S. B. O'Donnell ("a responsible, respectable citizen") with whom he has never connected. Gar works for his father in his shop and their relationship is no different from that of Boss and Employee. Private often makes fun of S.B. calling him "Screwballs" and parodying his nightly routine as a fashion show.
Essentially, this play is a tragicomedy. It contains many comical scenes, especially the scene with Lizzy Sweeney, Gar's aunt, in which Gar decides to go to America. Despite the fact that Gar seems to have a relationship with his father no different from that of Boss and Employee, there are indications that there is love between them. In episode 1, Madge says "It must have been near daybreak when he (SB O'Donnell) got to sleep last night. I could hear the bed creaking." Other indications that SB is secretly devastated by his son's imminent departure, include his remembrance of Gar in a sailor suit proudly declaring he need not go to school, he'll work in his father's shop – a memory of an event that may not have happened, and the scene when he pretends to read the paper, but fails to notice that it has been upside-down.
Gar's reasons for going to America (he wanted to prove to Aunt Lizzie that he was not "cold like the O'Donnells"), along with his secret love for his uncommunicative father, and their desperate final, pathetic attempts to communicate make this play quite tragic.
All of the action in this play takes place within a period of a few hours on the evening of Gar's departure, but it also includes flashbacks to Gar's relationship with local girl Kate Doogan, and the visit from his Aunt Lizzie.
Characters
Below is a list of the characters from the play Philadelphia, Here I Come! along with a cast list from when it was first performed, at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, on September 28, 1964.
Productions
The play was first staged at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on September 28, 1964. The production, directed by Hilton Edwards, then transferred to Broadway in the United States, where it premiered on February 16, 1966 at the Helen Hayes Theater, by the David Merrick Arts Foundation, with arrangement by Oscar Lewenstein and Michael White. It ran for 326 performances, and received several Tony Award nominations, including for Best Play and Best Director.
In 2004, the play was performed through the Association of Regional Theatres Northern Ireland, directed by Adrian Dunbar and produced by Andrea Montgomery. Second Age Theatre Company staged the play in 2007, directed by Alan Stanford. This production toured Ireland, stopping off at Donegal, Ennis, Dublin and Cork, as well as New York, Texas and California in the United States.
Noel Pearson produced a revival of the play at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre in March/April 2010. In 2012 the play was staged at Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London.
Andrew Flynn directed the play at Lyric Theatre, Belfast in February/March 2014. In October 2021, Patrick Talbot Productions presented the play at Cork Opera House. The cast included Alex Murphy as Private Gar.
The play is on the syllabus for English Higher Level and Ordinary Level for the Irish Leaving Certificate examinations, as well as the English A1 course of the International Baccalaureate.