One of the most hotly anticipated features of the first Lughnasa International Friel Festival is the latest production of Brian Friel’s classic Irish play Dancing at Lughnasa at The Lyric Theatre in Belfast.
Dubbed as one of the greatest plays ever written, director Annabelle Comyn had some big boots to fill, and fill them she did.
Set in County Donegal in 1936 during the Celtic harvest festival of Lughnasa, the play tells the story of the five Mundy sisters and their brother Jack, who has returned home from the missions after 25 years away.
The story is told by the sisters’ nephew, Michael, who recalls the summer spent with his aunts when he was seven years old. As August gives way to September, Michael recounts his memory of childhood in his native Ballybeg, where his aunts raised him in their crumbling, rural home and where once they danced. A wild, raucous dance. A dance to the exciting, fleeting melody of the past and a dance against the harsh, progressive beat of the present.
This is a modern realisation of Dancing at Lughnasa, only in the fact it is being performed in modern day, aside from that the props, the setting, the costume and everything else is surprisingly authentic – only as stripped back and sparse as it needs to be – when the sisters make soda bread, they really are making soda bread in front of you, when they’re ironing, they really are ironing. You genuinely feel transported back to 1930s Ireland which in this day and age, is no mean feat.
The stage setting is powerful even at first glance, with an authentic looking Donegal cottage laid out before us – a solid wooden table in the centre, a burning range to one side and a sideboard topped with a glowing radio to the other. A large textured shrowd falls at an angle from the ceiling to create the feeling of the thatched roof overhead, and the smell of peat is almost suffocating throughout the theatre.
The casting is spot on, from the charming rogue Gerry Evans (played by Matt Tait), to stern sister Kate (played by Catherine McCormack), the characters are not only fully formed, but endearing in their own individual ways and standout performances undoubtedly go to Cara Kelly’s portrayal of fun loving Maggie and Mary Murray’s Rose.
This is a story about memories, about progression, guilt, joy, and ultimately, about dance. The dancing scenes are riotous, raucous, hard to watch and almost insulting of the senses. It is during these sequences of outburst and expression that the frailty of the family’s life is truly exposed.
I am beyond impressed by this performance of such an iconic play, what the cast and crew have done is really encapsulate the world that Friel writes about, deliver it to a modern day audience and make them temporarily forget about smartphones, Facebook updates and email inboxes, if even for a few hours.
You can catch Dancing at Lughnasa at The Lyric Theatre in Belfast from now until 27th September. For more information and to book tickets click here.
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