When the police disrupt a peaceful civil rights protest, three unarmed strangers, a middle-aged mother and two young men, take refuge from the streets and find themselves in the Lord Mayor’s opulent office.  As the three settle in,  word spreads about its  “occupation”  and the motley trio is transformed into a band of armed and desperate terrorists, news that is taken up by the church, the media, the army, the law, and a creator of folk songs, all of whom use the narrative for their own diverse ends.

While set during the troubles in Derry, Northern Ireland, The Freedom of the City is, as Friel notes, about “The nature of power. The effect of power. The nature of poverty. The effect of poverty”.  And, above all, it is about the nature of truth and where it might be found.