After the worldwide success of the 1990 play Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel (Omagh, 1929), a playwright known for his search for new ways of dealing with his old preoccupations, created what many critics understood as a sequel to that play. Wonderful Tennessee, which premiered in 1993 at the Abbey Theatre, has been frequently considered Lughnasa"s younger and plainer sister. Whereas the seductiveness of the former cannot be denied, I intend to defend in this article the importance in Friel"s oeuvre of Wonderful Tennessee, a play rich in meaning and original in form that presents a complete rite of passage as described in Victor Turner"s anthropological studies. Friel unites elements that form part of ancient, Celtic and Christian rituals to show what has forever been humanity"s aim: the attainment of the absolute. Tras el éxito mundial de la obra de 1990 Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel (Omagh, 1929), un dramaturgo que siempre ha buscado nuevas formas de expresar sus inquietudes, creó una obra que muchos críticos calificaron de secuela de la anterior. Wonderful Tennessee, estrenada en 1993 en el Abbey Theatre, ha sido frecuentemente considerada la hermana fea de Dancing at Lughnasa. A pesar de que el atractivo de esta última es innegable, intentaremos defender aquí la importancia en la carrera de Friel de Wonderful Tennessee, una obra rica en significado y original en la forma utilizada para presentar en escena un rito de paso completo, tal y como los describe Victor Turner en sus estudios antropológicos. Friel une elementos de rituales de la antigüedad clásica, celtas y cristianos para mostrar lo que desde siempre ha sido la meta del ser humano: alcanzar lo absoluto.