First performed in 1990 at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, the home for Irish theatre established by WB Yeats and his circle, Friel's
Dancing at Lughnasa is, quite simply, a great
play. We are presented by a narrator, Michael, who tells us of his childhood in pre war Ballybeg, in County Donegal. But this memory play is no starry eyed return to a landscape of green hills and cheery folk, although the play has plenty of humour, and the dancing is energetic enough. Michael was born out of marriage, a source of some shame in this tight rural community, and his mother and her four
sisters bring him up. Kate, as the eldest sister, is the senior figure in the household, and her teaching job makes her the prime wage earner, too. The other sisters - Chris (Michael's mother), Maggie, Agnes and Rose all have their roles in the
running of the house, but the precarious
nature of their existance is underlined by the heart wrenching nature of the play's closing moments, when it is revealed that Agnes and Rose have to leave home when their own jobs are phased out by the establishment of a factory nearby. The Industrial Revolution had caught up with Ballybeg, our narrator notes, but Friel's skill is in portraying this pre Industrial world without emotional clutter. The sisters are independence personified, but they are prisoners, too. The men in their lives are either marrying others or, in the case of the youngest sister, the simple Rose, are predatory marrieds. Dancing is their only hope of escape.The play focusses on the late summer of 1936, when the two men in Michael's
life make an appearance. His charming drifter of a father, Gerry, visits, sweeping Chris off her feet again, and trying hard to make a significant mark in the life of his young son. The other man in the house at this time is Uncle Jack, who's own time is running out. The fact that both men make a lasting impression despite the fact that they are, from Michael's perspective, peripheral figures on the wider canvas of his life story is testament to the play's tough sense of humanity, and a reminder to us all of the importance of belonging.Peter Jones
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