In Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964) and Wonderful Tennessee (1993), Brian Friel presents his audience with the hope but also the complexity associated with journeys and acts of departure. Both plays treat moments that just precede traveling. The first overtly presents the question of the emigrant while the latter metaphorically presents us with the desire for a journey, being set at a pier awaiting a boat that never comes. This paper examines Friel's plays Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Wonderful Tennessee through van Gennep's framework of rites of passage and Victor Turner's concept of liminality. In this light, the moment of departure on which the two plays are centered present a liminal space that separates a life to be left behind and another to be sought elsewhere. Written thirty years apart, the paper also compares the evolution of the theatrical image of departure in both plays, highlighting the metaphoric elements of the journey in Wonderful Tennessee.