A Theatre Buff Reviews Dancing At Lughnasa

Dancing At Lughnasa is a poignant story skillfully told. It’s narrated by Michael (Patrick Galligan), the love child of the youngest of the five Mundy sisters (Fiona Byrne, Diana Donnelly, Claire Jullien, Serena Parma, and Tara Rosling), as he remembers the month of August in 1936. Michael was seven years old at the time. We get a sense of an intelligent lad who is a keen onlooker and eavesdropper as he plays just outside the kitchen window, hides behind bushes, and, I suspect, listens in from the upstairs landing at bedtime.

Watching Dancing At Lughnasa is as close to déjà-vu as many of us will ever encounter. The farm-house kitchen, the household work, the women’s attire and the right of place for the Marconi were all familiar to me from my mother’s family photo album. Even the conversations between and amongst the sisters felt familiar: the propriety of five middle-aged women attending the harvest festival; the longing for new shoes, or a pretty dress; the worry about how to stretch a sparse meal to include Michael’s father (Kristopher Bowman) at the table; the health of an elderly uncle and rogue priest (Peter Millard). These women were leading a life at the margins alleviated by interactions with Michael and by programs from their beloved Marconi. And when that programming included music they would joyfully and enthusiastically abandon their worries to the pleasures of Irish dance.

Dancing At Lughnasa works on many levels: memory, family, community and religion. It’s a story of time and place that can, as it did with our group of four, engage the audience’s imagination. The performances are superb. Dancing At Lughnasa is playing at The Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake until October 13, 2017.

Bonnie Lendrum is the author of Autumn’s Grace, the story of how one family manages the experience of palliative care with hope and humor despite sibling conflicts, generational pulls and career demands. Autumn’s Grace is a powerful commentary on the need for well-organized and well-funded palliative care in private homes and in residential hospices. Bonnie Lendrum has just completed her second manuscript. It’s currently out for review to readers selected for their abilities to be critical, blunt, and polite. Stay tuned!