Dancing at Lughnasa

I always wondered what Lughnasa was, when I read that the play Dancing at Lughnasa was being performed. Was it a place in Dublin – a bar or dance hall or club, maybe? So when we decided to sample the delights of another performance in the CQS space at the Old Vic, I really had to find out.
Apparently, Lughnasa ( pronounced ‘loo nasa’ ) refers to the 1st August Celtic Harvest Festival, which is celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Bilberries are a key feature of the festival; the boys thread bilberries to make bracelets for their girls; and on the first Sunday in August, the young folk pair off for the afternoon to go bilberry collecting up the hill. There is a lot of singing and dancing, and before they come back, the girls leave their bracelets up there. Then there are sporting contests like horse-racing, weight throwing – and it is thought that the Highland Games are the modern version of the Lughnasa Festivals in Scotland. Perhaps these contests are the representation of the battles to protect the crops that are ripening from disaster.
This production is the first in the West End since Brian Friel’s play premiered in London, October 1990; and a wonderful cast has been gathered under the direction of Anna Makmin: Niamh Cusack, Michelle Fairley, Simone Kirby, Susan Lynch, Andrea Corr, Finbar Lynch, Peter McDonald and Jo Stone-Fewings.
The play is narrated by Michael, the adult, illegitimate son of Chris Mundy, the youngest of the five sisters who live just outside Ballybeg. He has returned to the empty cottage and his reminiscences of the summer of 1936 are the basis of the play. The sisters make ends meet with Kate’s wages as a teacher and the small amount that Agnes earns making gloves, with a little help from the rather slow Rose. The summer of 1936 seems to be a turning point when the sisters realise that perhaps they are too old to attend the Lughnasa Festival dance; when Kate learns that her job at the school is in jeopardy; and when Agnes finds she no longer has a market for her hand made gloves as the factory made ones are cheaper. Their brother, Jack, returns from his priest's job in Uganda adding to this mix and there are sporadic visits from Gerry, Michael’s father, who announces that he is off to fight in the Spanish War.
The story twists and turns and looking into the ‘cottage’ and its garden in the CQS space at the Old Vic, we are completely taken up with the fates of the characters. It is with sadness that we learn from Michael’s final monologue what has befallen the family, which includes the deaths of Agnes and Rose, destitute in London. This is the Old Vic at its best and after this production the theatre will be returned to its original format. Whether or not the CQS space will be a future possibility only remains to be seen.