In 1968 Friel was living in Derry City , a hotbed of the Irish Civil Rights Movement , where incidents such as the Battle of the Bogside inspired Friel 's choice to write a new play set in Derry . The play Friel began drafting in Derry would become , '' The Freedom of the City . '' Friel , defying a British government ban , marched with the Civil Rights Association against the policy of internment . The protest Friel took part in was the infamous Bloody Sunday protests of 1972 . In a 1983 interview , Friel spoke of how his personal experience of being fired upon by British soldiers during the Bloody Sunday riot , greatly affected the drafting of '' The Freedom of the City '' as a political play . Friel in speaking of the incident , recalled , " It was really a shattering experience that the British army , this disciplined instrument , would go in as they did that time and shoot thirteen people ... to have to throw yourself on the ground because people are firing at you is really a terrifying experience . " By the mid 1970s , Friel had moved away from overtly political plays to examine family dynamics in a manner that has attracted many comparisons to the work of Chekhov . '' Living Quarters '' ( 1977 ) , a play that examines the suicide of a domineering father , is a retelling of the Theseus/Hippolytus myth in a contemporary Irish setting . This play , with its focus on several sisters and their ne'er - do-well brother , serves as a type of preparation for Friel 's more successful '' Aristocrats '' ( 1979 ) , a Chekhovian study of a once-influential family 's financial collapse and , perhaps , social liberation from the aristocratic myths that have constrained the children . '' Aristocrats '' was the first of three plays premiered over a period of eighteen months which would come to define Friel 's career as a dramatist , the others being '' Faith Healer '' ( 1979 ) and '' Translations '' ( 1980 )
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Brian Friel