Dancing at Lughnasa: A Play

What follows is an adapted version of the liner notes I wrote in the production program of Dancing At Lughnasa which I recently directed. The production closed on May 18 2002."Careful, if you breathe, it breaks." Laura"The play is memory, and being a memory play, it is sentimental, it is dimly lit, it is not realistic."both quotes from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams"I'd always heard that your entire life flashes in front of you the second before you die. First off, that second isn't a second at all. It stretches on forever like an ocean of time . . . you have no idea what I"m talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry .. . you will."Lester from American Beauty written by Alan BallBrian Friel's gentle and poetic narrative seeks to capture the fragile and imperceptible line standing between nostalgia and history. "Dancing At Lughnasa" does not seek to be a documentary. It is not based so much on harsh reality as say McCourt's "Angela's Ashes".The six adult siblings as viewed through the retrospective eyes of the adult narrator Micheal all share the common bond of blood, time and space. Their collective sense of love, compassion and interdependence makes them, I believe true heroes. In every family, there comes a time when the unit must break apart and each member must find their own independent way. the struggle against inevitable change, while it may appear foolish to some, I find admirable in the poetic sense. This struggle appears to provide the family with a history, a sense of place and purpose. Ultimately they find thier identity within the bird's nest ( in Friel's play, the hen house). The family also serves as the proving found. It defines, strengthens and completes its members. Perhaps in history before the radio of Marconi, the family found itself able to sustain and even thrive in one place.Friel appears to use Dancing At Lughnasa as a vehicle for freezing in memory the final time before a family splinters off.Memory often proves a decietful beast. Frequently we all remember things as we wish them to exist. This almost always contrasts with the factual. Micheal (Friel's alter ego) desires to hold this specific moment in time the way he wants to remember it, as an idealized image forever frozen in glass. Who really can blame us (and Micheal) for favoring nostalgia over fact? For like some sort of cruel trick, we amost never realize our key life events until long after they have played out.The play's earthy philosopher Maggie even states, "just one quick glimpse-that's all you ever get. And if you miss that . . ." Dancing At Lughnasa serves as Friel's quick glimpse at a moment long gone.Lughnasa is not a play of simple entertaiment. It is a complex work of art, filled with personal revelations, symbols and ideas that work together to reveal universe. It is a great play because it holds up to close reading and scrutiny. Enjoy and savor.

Book was shipped almost in shambles. Entire pb was bent and crumpled diagonally yet placed into an intact bubble wrap package that is intact via USPS. You’re safer on Bezos’s space flights.

A really interesting comedy-drama with priceless characters.But I didn't get the part, so there's a touch o' tragedy as well, and the script is on the shelf.

Very Emotional play. Rollercoaster of emotion. Reccommended read, reccommended watch. great play when done well.

GautamiPutra Satakarni

This play is as satisfying to read as to see on stage - and more satisfying than to watch the worthy but not outstanding movie version. If you can't get to see it live, buy the script rather than the movie DVD.

Genius

This Play was for one of my college classes. But I found it to be well written and wonderful. If you like Irish plays you should read it.

I would not have chosen to read this book, probably under any circumstances.I had to though, as is is a set book for my upcoming Open University A230 'Reading and Studying Literature', which will be my last module at Level 2 (having just finished A215 'Creative Writing ... not that you need to know this!).The front cover is appealing, and is the reason I dragged it off the reading pile in the first place - the dress seems genteel and is set in juxtaposition to the black wellingtons.The theme of A230 is home and away, and after reading this short text I can see why it was added to the list. Not only is the home/away theme running through it, but also religion/paganism, responsibility/irresponsibility, setting rules/breaking rules and the face you project/the way you are perceived.All round a very interesting text, if slightly intellectual read. Interestingly, especially so if you are studying, or interested in, humanities and the human condition.

I'm teaching Dancing at Lughnasa at the moment, and every time I do it reminds me that this is a play that is easy to read, fairly easy to absorb, but quite challenging to understand fully. This is a good quality Kindle text of Brian Friel's play, and it's especially nice to see that the pagination of this text very closely matches the printed Faber version that you're probably using for A level.the review of the print version probably gives you most of the detail you need to know about the play itself-but just some thoughts: read and reread Michaels monologues really carefully-but only they are very unusual dramatic device (not unique though) but they highlight and foreground the play's key theme, which the me is memory. Michael's memory of his childhood runs parallel to the audience's memory of the idyllic innocence of 1930s song popularised the British audiences probably most memorably by the TV series Pennies From Heaven. Don't forget the dramatic irony that the audience knows that this limited, provisional idyll is doomed as the war which comes in 1939 will physically pass neutral Ireland by, but change everything in its path otherwise. Make sure you read the article on the play in the Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel. Good luck!

Love this play. Read it in school 20 years ago and bought it to reread. Very sad story, brilliantly written. Very short and easy to read and follow

I have seen the stage play three times and did not bother with the movie. To understand a very small but an important part of Irish history everyone should read this. It far removed from the Celtic Tiger economy that one thinks about. Real history, real hardship and family life in rural Ireland, its all here.

Exactly as advertised