"What's clever is the theatrical conceit at the heart of this play," says Sean Holmes, director of Translations.

"The script is written entirely in English so the audience can understand every word which is spoken, but what you actually see is utter confusion, as if the actors were speaking different languages."

Lost? You would be if, let's say, our city and its street names were suddenly all written in Japanese. Brighton wouldn't be Brighton by any other name. Or would it? This is the question posed in the National Theatre's touring production of Brian Friel's modern Irish classic.

Set in Donegal in 1833, the Irish Potato Famine and the callous attitude of the British Empire are a gripping backdrop to a major culture clash.

As British troops attempt to track and map the landscape and convert the Irish place names to the King's English, they undermine the Gaelic-speaking villagers' sense of identity and belonging.

The stage set of Sean Holmes' acclaimed production is "minimal, movable and practical," he says. "The play is very light and fluid for a long time and then towards the end you get a punch in the stomach. It has an element of tragedy but it also shows a whole society, the light and life of that society."

Most of the action takes place in the home of learned but doddery Hedge schoolmaster Hugh O'Donnell.

"Hedge Schools were underground throughout the 18th Century," says Sean.

"The name comes from the fact that most of the classes did actually take place under hedges at that time."

In 1782, however, the Crown allowed a measure of legal status to the operation of these schools but they were still based in barns and sod houses. Here, in accordance with British law, Catholic pupils are taught classics and mathematics. O'Donnell has two sons, Manus and Owen.

Although they are both scholars, they could not be more different. Manus, lame since childhood, lives at home and dreams of marrying the wild and uncouth Maire, a student at the school.

Owen has left home and become a successful businessman, and now works as a translator for two British officers involved in coordinating the ordinance survey.

One of these officers, Lieutenant Yolland, is enchanted with Ireland, even though he is responsible for altering its laws and language, and falls in love with Maire.

Their blossoming relationship is central to the play and the struggle they face to communicate their feelings, speaking as they do different languages, provides much poignant drama.

"The great thing about the play is that it isn't bad Englishmen versus good Irishmen," says Sean. "It's more complex than that.

British Yolland falls in love with Ireland and Irish Owen sells out willingly to the British, for the sake of progress.

"It's really a play about conflict and contradictions, both personal and political."

First performed in 1980 in the Guildhall Theatre in Derry, Brian Friel's Translations was one of the flagships of the Field Day Group. This was a gathering of writers and artists including actor Stephen Rea, poets Seamus Heaney and Tom Paulin, academic Seamus Deane, and playwright Friel.

Their project was to reinvigorate the political consciousness of Irish literary arts with a respect for traditions of nation, self and language which extended past the republican rhetoric of the late-19th and 20th Centuries.

Sean Holmes recently directed Arthur Miller's The Price, as well as A New Way to Please You, Richard III and Measure For Measure for the RSC. He directed The Mentalists at the National as part of the Transformation season in 2002.

The cast includes Billy Carter, Simon Coates, David Ganly, Kenny Ireland, Aislinn Mangan, Mairead McKinley, Jane Murphy, Tony Rohr and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

Starts 7.30pm. Tickets cost £15 (under-18s £7). Call 01273 709709.