Shut up and dance (with Lughnasa) at Barking Legs
Back in 1990, “Dancing at Lughnasa”, a play by Irish dramatist Brian Friel, met the stage for the first time. Now it is coming to Barking Legs Theater this weekend, and has lost none of its impact or power over the past three decades.
Considered a memory play, the story follows the recollections of a grown man, Michael Evans, as he recounts the events of a brief summer at his aunts’ cottage in the fictional, Irish town of Ballybeg.
It reflects on the life decisions of the five Mundy sisters (Kate, Maggie, Agnes, Rosie, and Christina) living unmarried and in poverty. The festival of Lughnasadh, a Celtic harvest festival, works as the medium by which their failures and hopes are communicated to the audience.
In the series of events that leads up to the festival, we see further into the unfulfilled lives the sisters have lead. It is the dancing of the festival, a symbol of sexuality and freedom, that brings due diligence to the sisters otherwise bleak futures. The focus of Friel was to concentrate on both the dangers of freedom and to what extent society hinders our self-expression and goals.
It is through dance that Christina finds the “very heart of life and all its hopes.” — Brian Friel.
“Dancing at Lughnasa”, Thursday thru Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave., (423) 624-5347, barkinglegs.org.