Local Tipperary drama group gets set to stage exciting new performance

Thurles Drama Group are back in action from February 23 to 28 in the Source Arts Centre with Brian Friel’s classic play, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, directed by Margaret McCormack.

Considered one of Friel’s greatest works, it is steeped in Irish tradition, history and Celtic culture, but also rich in pathos, emotion, humour and tragedy.

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Set in Friel’s mythical town of Ballybeg (Baile Beag, along with many of his plays), it tells the story of the five Mundy sisters trying to eke out a living in 1930s rural Ireland.

Times are hard in a community full of gossip, benign malice and the overpowering influence of the Catholic Church.

Written in 1990, the play is semi-autobiographical as Friel grew up with his five aunts in Donegal as a child.

The title of the play refers to the Celtic festival of Lughnasa, a celebration of the annual harvest and a symbol of hope, prosperity and an underlying theme of fertility and creation.

The sisters, Kate (Marie McElgun), Maggie (Geraldine Delaney), Agnes (Paula Drohan), Chris (Stacey Taylor) and Rose (Ciara O’Meara) along with Chris’ young son Michael (Derek Doherty) are joined by their brother ‘Father’ Jack (Liam Ryan), a catholic priest home after many years as a missionary in Uganda.

Michael’s Father, Gerry (Pat Loughnane) also makes some sporadic appearances to meet Chris and his son.

Told through the adult Michael, the play recalls a summer when his seven-year-old self lived with his mother, Chris, and the four aunts in rural Ireland.

The sisters’ lives are simple but strained: making gloves for a pittance, tending to the house, and clinging to laughter and music amid hardship.

Their fragile world begins to shift when Father Jack returns home, changed by the experience and questioning the faith he once served.

Dancing at Lughnasa is a multi-layered play which is part of the reason it’s so riveting to watch.

It’s a memory play, which in this case means that a narrator (Michael) tells us at the beginning and at points during the evening that what the audience is witnessing is from his memory, mainly from when he was seven years old.

So straightaway, the play raises questions about the reliability of memory but also about the nature of writing itself.

Did all that happens really occur in the space of a couple of months, or is it memory (or Friel) rearranging them for the sake of a more dramatic narrative?

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Memory is a huge theme in Friel’s work such as ‘Philadelphia’, ‘Here I Come’, and ‘Making History’.

What is the relationship between memory and truth, and, within the dramatic action of the play, does it matter?

Lughnasa is a play about five unmarried sisters, it is about human relationships universally.

What holds them together, what may drive them apart?

Those same questions apply to much larger communities.

The Drama group will be taking this play on the three-act Festival Circuit, hoping to reach the All-Ireland Finals in Athlone.

The group have been in Athlone on many occasions, coming third in 2023 with the Seafarer by Conor McPherson, again directed by Margaret McCormack.

Opening night on February 23 will be a benefit night for Ballysloe National School.

The Thurles Drama Group encourages those interested to book their tickets now to avoid disappointment.