Dancing at Lughnasa

by Brian Friel

A tale of the break up of a household at the hands of economic and emotional strain, told from the point of view of a seven year old boy.

Michael looks back to the Autumn of 1936, the time of the harvest festivities, when he was living with his mother and her four sisters in a small village in Donegal. He remembers the return of Father Jack, a missionary sent home after going native, the reappearance of his philandering father, and the new wireless, prompting his mother and aunts to dance with abandon around the kitchen. It is these pagan rituals and animal impulses in conflict with the mores and conventions of society and Christianity that ends up breaking the family apart.

Note from the Author

My best thanks to the Tuebingen Anglo-Irish Theatre Group and to Eberhard Bort. I hope you have a lot of fun doing Dancing at Lughnasa.