Brian Friel obituary
Playwright who was a towering figure of the stage from Dublin to BroadwayWhen asked why he had two birth certificates, one dated 9 January 1929 and the other 10 January, the Irish playwright Brian Friel, who has died aged 86, replied: "Perhaps I'm twins." The reaction was typical of a writer acclaimed for the clarity, economy and intensity of his language and his probing of public and private anxieties. Living at var…