Dancing at Lughnasa both is and isn’t a memory play. It’s told in retrospect by Michael, remembering the summer of 1936 spent with his mother and aunts in County Donegal, and draws on Brian Friel’s own early life. Yet what we see of the women at its centre resists the sentimentality of nostalgia, instead showing lives of survival, humour and wild, suppressed desires.
Aspects of this duality are captured by Elizabeth Newman’s production, her first as artistic director of Sheffield Theatres. The five unmarried Mundy sisters are sharply drawn, their interactions conveying the subtle, unspoken language of a lifetime together. Even when in the background, their faces each tell a shadow story – whether it’s the pained disapproval of schoolteacher Kate (Natalie Radmall-Quirke), the quick wit of joker Maggie (Siobhán O’Kelly), or the various thwarted yearnings of Agnes (Laura Pyper), Rose (Rachel O’Connell) and Chris (Martha Dunlea). Their familiarity is thrown into relief by the presence of older brother Jack (Frank Laverty), back after 25 years in Uganda and floundering.
