Group Play - Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (Winter '16)

[Leslie]

Our group play for January-March 2016 is Dancing at Lughnasa by the recently deceased Irish playwright Brian Friel. Friel has been called the "Irish Chekhov" and he has been considered one of the leading contemporary English-language playwrights. Because of this & his death in October 2015, his play has been selected as the focus play for our Winter Theme of Irish plays & playwrights.

You can read more about him in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Friel

[Portia]

I am truly looking forward to this discussion. I saw the play a number of years ago and it has been a favorite ever since.

[Leslie]

I should be getting my copy of this and Friel's Translations over the weekend. In the meanwhile, has anyone listened to the BBC Radio 4X's 20 minute "Self Portrait" recorded by Brian Friel in 1971?

Here is the link to listen (only good for the next few weeks):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r55mw

[Gill]

I'm picking up my copy of it tomorrow. Thanks for the link, Leslie.

[Gill]

There's this radio version of Translations available also until 25th January

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r55mt

[Gill]

Just picked up my copy. The print size is minuscule. I'm sure I'll sort something.

[Greg]

I don't think I've read anything by Friel before. I'm looking forward to joining in!

[LauraT]

It's not that easy to find this book here without spending a fortune; I'll see if I can manage something

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "There's this radio version of Translations available also until 25th January

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r55mt"

I just finished listening to this -- I don't have anything to compare it too but I thought it was very well done.

Laura, I would say that this recording would count as "reading" the play -- it isn't the 'focus' play but it would give you a feeling for this playwright.

[Gill]

I've just started reading this. I've not read many plays before, I've usually seen them on tv or live. It's quite interesting reading all the details of the stage setting and the previous performances, and even things like how the advertisements need to be set out for any productions of this play.

I think Michael's opening speech is magnificent.

[Gill]

Leslie wrote: "I should be getting my copy of this and Friel's Translations over the weekend. In the meanwhile, has anyone listened to the BBC Radio 4X's 20 minute "Self Portrait" recorded by Brian ..."

No spoiler involved. Friel, very near the end of D at L, has the narrator say 'what fascinates me about that memory is that it owes nothing to fact. In that memory atmosphere is more real than incident and everything is simultaneously actual and illusory.' In this interview, Friel talks in some detail about memory and facts. It was very interesting to me.

[Jenny]

I've really liked Translations by him, so I am looking forward to this one.

[Gill]

Just finished, I thought it was very good. I'd like to see it staged. (view spoiler)[ I thought the device of, partway through Act 2, having the narrator telling you what happened in the future, and then the play cutting back to the present, was extremely effective. (hide spoiler)]

[Portia]

When we saw it, the cast was able to raise the energy of the audience and made us all part of the experience. Amazing. And then they did it again the next night.

[Pink]

Just reserved this.

[Leslie]

Pink wrote: "Just reserved this."

Me too as when I went to get it last weekend, it turned out to be missing.

[Portia]

(view spoiler)[ I was very interested in the tension between Catholicism and the pagan roots of Ireland. When Kate not just joins the dance but jumps in with a yell and dances alone, I feel Friel is saying that those pagan roots are very, very deep. I also think that, with the arrival of the radio, which sparks the dance, he's telling us that the world was beginning to become more secular. (hide spoiler)]

[Leslie]

I read this today - I found it overall rather sad. My review is mostly spoilers, but for those who have finished, it is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "Just finished, I thought it was very good. I'd like to see it staged. [spoilers removed]"

Yes, I am not a visual person so I have trouble envisioning the extremely specific stage setting Friel provides at the beginning.

I agree with your spoiler and also thought it would be interesting to see how adult Michael responding as young Michael worked on stage. I thought that was an interesting device.

@Portia - Your comment was fascinating to me as I thought something similar: (view spoiler)[Father Jack's heresy (which was another way to revert to a primitive belief) seemed to me to be a symbol of the waning power of the Catholic priests in Ireland (hide spoiler)]…

Oh, and I understand your comment earlier about this being a strange choice for winter now! Although the Lughnasa is mostly background, it is clearly set in August and September.

[Portia]

Any movement made at Imbolc (Candlemas, February 1-2, Groundhog Day) trends more towards shivering than dancing! ;-)

I hope you are able to see it performed. (You meaning those expressing interest in that.)

[Pink]

I've read the first part, about to start the second. I agree with comments above, it's got quite a sad feel to it and I'm not sure that's going to improve.

[Leslie]

Pink wrote: "I've read the first part, about to start the second. I agree with comments above, it's got quite a sad feel to it and I'm not sure that's going to improve."

I think it stays sad but in the sense of being melancholy rather than being tragic (if that distinction means anything to anyone other than myself).

[Pink]

Yes, it makes sense to me, this is very melancholic.

[Pink]

I finished this today and really didn't enjoy the second act very much at all. I thought the best thing about the play was the relationship between the sisters and just the general everyday conversation between them and feeling of sisterly bonds. I didn't at all care for Michael's comments as an adult, especially concerning (view spoiler)[the two sisters who disappeared and lived a destitute life in London until their death. I found this rather abrupt and unnecessary to the story (hide spoiler)] I also wasn't too keen on the parts with Father Jack (was his name Jack?) Anyway, not one for me I'm afraid, but I'm glad to have given it a try.

[Gill]

Re your spoiler, Pink, interesting how we differ! That was the part I liked most. I felt it gave me a different perspective on the rest of the second act.

[Pink]

Haha, I thought you might like that bit Gill, funny how we like different things!

[Leslie]

I think that the Father Jack bits are important in that (view spoiler)[his heretical beliefs cause the downfall of the whole family by causing Kate to lose her job. This could be seen as a metaphor for the economic decline of Ireland being due to the abandonment of strict Catholicism. (hide spoiler)]

The adult Michael (view spoiler)[provides us, the audience, with a chance to see how it all turns out. I do find the parts with the sisters in the first act the most enjoyable part but I like that sense of closure. It emphasizes the fact that the times together are short and should be treasured, that we don't always know when we are having the happy times. Each of the sisters in the first part has some problem but in the retrospective view Michael gives us, we can see that it was essentially a happy time. (hide spoiler)]

[Pink]

Yes, you're right about Father Jack's importance, I suppose I just didn't enjoy reading about him as much as I did the sisters.

[Jenny]

I've finished it today and liked it a lot, I will mull it over a little and come back to write some more in a few days.

[Portia]

When I saw the play performed, and again when I read it for this discussion, I was struck by Friel's putting the dance in Act I. It certainly is a high point and might even be considered the climax of the play BUT I think it is Friel's intention to illustrate early on that the family's relationship and, with it, Catholicism, had reached its high point and was now winding down.

From an audience perspective, it is a risky move. As a playwrite, you want the audience to come back after the intermission. If all is revealed before the end of the first act, you could have people leaving to "beat the traffic" unless, as Friel has done, you are able to hold their interest in the unraveling of the family story.

[Leslie]

Nice analysis Portia! I agree about that feeling of decline though the dance strikes me as more pagan than Catholic.

[Petra]

The library is finally shipping this book to me. I requested it in December. I may have it by next week & be able to join in thge discussion sokn. ☺

[Leslie]

Wow Petra, that is a long time to wait! I hope that it is because the play is in demand rather than because there are so few copies that it has to come from far away.

[Petra]

Leslie, it is an interlibrary loan. Those always take ages to come in. I don't know why. When I put the request in, the database said it was sitting on the shelf of a library in the interior of BC. It's taken this long for them to take it off the shelf and ship it. I'm just glad to be getting it while the group read is still on-going. :D

[Petra]

I'm about half way through and really enjoying this. I hadn't heard of this play before so have no idea how it will play out.
I'm enjoying the set directions and descriptions.
The sisters seem odd....probably from being isolated from the town. They seem to rely heavily on each other and have specific roles to play.....and deviations are frowned upon.
I get the idea that there's a secret around Father Jack.

I haven't read any of the above spoilers yet. I will when I finish the play.

[Leslie]

Glad that you are liking it Petra, especially after that long wait for it to arrive!

[Petra]

I'm glad I read this and would go see it on stage if opportunity arose.

(view spoiler)[It seems to say a lot about "roots" with the women dancing (representing the Celtic roots of Ireland) and Father Jack having adopted the "pagan" ways of the Africans he lived with for 25 years and, thereby, returning to "pagan" roots).
The sisters seem to have all been passed by and left in a remote farm, away from so much of life. It's mysterious. They all seem to want things to be different.
Gerry is interesting. He drops by occasionally and always dazzles the women with charm and (empty) promises. He leaves his son in the end to start another family elsewhere. Could be something about promises made to the Irish by others and not kept?
This family sits at some crux of change or faith or something and could go either way. It seems from Michael's comments that they go the pagan way and things don't go so well for them. I'm not sure what the author is getting to with that. (hide spoiler)]

An interesting play. It was a long wait to get it and I'm sure I've missed a lot of the historical references of Ireland's past but I still enjoyed the play.

[Greg]

As usual, I'm reading this late, but I'll comment anyway. Loved everyone's ideas about Catholicisn/paganism in Ireland and the other symbolism! I think much of that is perceptive and spot on.

For me though, the best thing about the play was the play's heart - so poignant, these women trying to keep their spirit alive in really desperate circumstances ... and what a spirit they had!! I loved these women! Kate, more realistic than the others, trying desperately to hold everything together and all the others to lesser extent or greater extent dreamers.

Above anything, the play seems to be about loss, about things passing away. The game Maggie plays with Michael as a boy struck me as hugely resonant. She pretends to hold a bird in her hand and them opens them up, investing the nonexistent bird's flight with the pure beauty of her imagination. Her eyes "follow the rapid and imaginary flight."

Maggie: Did you see it?
Boy: I think so ... yes
Maggie: Wasn't it wonderful?
Boy: Was it a bird?
Maggie: The colors are so beautiful. (She gets to her feet.) Trouble is - just one quick glimpse - that's all you ever get. And if you miss that ...

For me that little game encapsulates the whole play in it - so poignant!

I especially love one of your comments Leslie: "It emphasizes the fact that the times together are short and should be treasured, that we don't always know when we are having the happy times." That's the main feeling I get from the play too - the fleetingness of life, the desperation to hold onto some spirit, some spark, some life and the deep preciousness of those fleeting moments beyond what we can understand until we've gone past them.

Though the play was deeply sad, I also liked the balancing humor. I can imagine performed on stage there'd be quite a bit of laughing mixed in! I love when the strangeness of Jack's views first starts to show itself. It's so unexpected and inappropriate and therefore hilarious.

For instance, after Chris explains that despite her child Michael she's not married, out of the blue, Jack says:

Jack: In Ryanga women are eager to have love children. The more love-children you have, the more fortunate your household is thought to be. Have you other love children?

I can picture the right actor getting a huge laugh out of the last question. It's so odd. I laughed just reading it.

And then Jack's enthusiasm explaining the Ryangan dances:

Jack: ... And then we dance - and dance - and dance - children, men, women, most of them lepers, many of them with misshapen limbs - dancing, believe it or not, for days on end! It is the most wonderful sight you have ever seen!

I love Maggie's honest reply talking to her sisters later, made me laugh out loud again.

Maggie: All the same, Kitty, I don't think it's a sight I'd like to see.
Kate: What sight?
Maggie: A clatter of lepers trying to do the Military Two-step.

I'd love to see this one stage one day - I bet it would be fantastic!! I'm jealous Portia! Have some of the rest of you also seen it on stage?

[Portia]

And it was one if those precious moments, because Tana Hicken, the actress who played Kate, died recently. She was a main stay of the Washington theater for decades. Forever in my mind will be her voice quoting, "Oh, for a muse of fire!" from Henry V that her character kept repeating in a play whose title I can't remember.

[Greg]

Portia wrote: "And it was one if those precious moments, because Tana Hicken, the actress who played Kate, died recently. She was a main stay of the Washington theater for decades. Forever in my mind will be her ..."

How sad Portia! It's wonderful that probably many people remember her as you do, but it's sad to see people like that go.

[Portia]

She also taught me that "paycock" is the Irish pronunciation for peacock ;-). Juno and the Paycock. Here's to ye, Tana!

[Leslie]

Greg wrote: "As usual, I'm reading this late, but I'll comment anyway. Loved everyone's ideas about Catholicisn/paganism in Ireland and the other symbolism! I think much of that is perceptive and spot on.

For ..."

Glad that you got to read this Greg, even if it was after the "official" time. If you haven't read it already, I think you would like his Translations as well.

I haven't seen it performed -- sadly, my main drama partner has been my parents and they are no longer interested in going to the theater.

@Portia -- that "paycock" = peacock revelation was big for me when I read that O'Casey play :)

[Greg]

Leslie wrote: "sadly, my main drama partner has been my parents and they are no longer interested in going to the theater..."

That's too bad Leslie :(

But I know what you mean - Ron & I used to take his mother to the theater quite often, but we haven't in a while. I guess at a certain point as it gets more difficult to get around, it's probably common. In Ron's mother's case though, I think it has more to do with her extreme excitement with her first two grandchildren. She had to wait a long time for them!!

I wish AAB members lived closer together. If they did I'd create an offshoot meetup playgoing group for sure!

[Gill]

Greg wrote: "Leslie wrote: "sadly, my main drama partner has been my parents and they are no longer interested in going to the theater..."

That's too bad Leslie :(

But I know what you mean - Ron & I used to ..."
I fancy the meet up play group! Over the years, I've usually gone to the theatre by myself.

[Portia]

If I've got it right, you have a lot of theater to choose from where you live, Gill. Lucky you ! Wasn't there an all female production of "Henry V" recently?

[Gill]

Portia wrote: "If I've got it right, you have a lot of theater to choose from where you live, Gill. Lucky you ! Wasn't there an all female production of "Henry V" recently?"

I've moved round over the years, Portia. But I have lived a lot of the time within bussing/ driving distance, of a city. There's also a woman who lives nearby who organises coach trips to concerts, ballets and occasionally plays.

I'm nowhere near London though. I've tended to see things in the Midlands and North - Nottingham, Hull, Sheffield, Leeds etc (which places may mean nothing to you!)

[Portia]

My husband's cousins live in Ilkley and Bakewell. They are very "spoah-ty" so we don't discuss books or the theater with them :(