Archive: Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

In the turbulent times of 1936, the five unmarried Mundy sisters live in a modest croft at the heart of a rugged farm outside Ballybeg, a small town in Donegal: the imperious teacher Kate, the irreverent big-hearted keeper of the hearth Maggie, the serene familial rudder Agnes, the sweetly eccentric and simple-minded Rose, and the lonely romantic Christina, who has stained the family reputation with an illegitimate son; all are heavenly bodies revolving around the 7-year old love child, Michael.

Dancing at Lughnasa is told from his memories, summoning back to the end of that summer, on the eve of celebration to the harvest diety Lugh, god of music and light. But the celebration of the play . . . the music and the light of it . . . really lives within the sisters, a gift they share with each other and the ones they love. In the Mundy household, they are simultaneously the storm and the buoy, a sharp judgment will always give way to loving forgiveness, a reproach is merely a prelude to a song or a cup of tea or an act of kindness. They are a family marked by the unfailing courage they possess for each other. But now it is on the threshhold of autumn, where events will conspire to irretrievably change the golden season of the Mundys.

Lyrical, evocative, earthy and raw, the multi-award winning Dancing at Lughnasa will leave you dancing with eyes half closed because to open them would break the spell.

Dancing at Lughnasa was directed by Paul Kay.

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