Dancing at Lughnasa at the Olivier Theatre

Michael Evans (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) narrates what is, at face value, a relaxing story, told at a steady pace. In casting his mind back to August 1936 in the fictional Irish town of Ballybeg (where this show’s playwright, Brian Friel (1929-2015) set quite a few of his plays), one might have been tempted, looking at this production’s picturesque scenery, to think this would be a couple of hours of escapism, in a more innocent and carefree era, when there was time for leisure activities of some kind or other: a place far removed from the hustle and bustle of life in a big city.

But the characters have plenty of problems after all, and I don’t just mean the outbreak of the Second World War which was to eventually have an impact even on Irish rural life. Michael’s mother, Chris (Alison Oliver), is one of five sisters who all still live in the family home. As Michael wryly observes, the Industrial Revolution had finally arrived in Ballybeg, and for two of the sisters, Agnes (Louisa Harland) and Rose (Bláithin Mac Gabhann), it means their glove-knitting enterprise is, to use a term Michael doesn’t use, unviable. As for the uptight and deeply religious Kate (Justine Mitchell), her source of income is about to disappear too, as the parish vicar has told her she won’t be able to continue in her teaching post in the next academic year, as the number of pupils enrolling in the church school has fallen.

Jack (Ardal O’Hanlon) is a priest in the Catholic Church who worked as a missionary in a Ugandan ‘leper colony’ for many years, though it appears the locals converted him to their faith rather than the other way around. Sent back to Ireland by the Church due to ill health (or was it really due to his embracing of non-Catholic beliefs?), his stories horrify Kate, who has even forbidden the others from naming their wireless: to give an inanimate object a name is a sin in the eyes of – well, Kate, as are miscellaneous other supposedly unholy things. The play doesn’t portray the Church in a particularly positive light, giving a strong impression that it is narrow-minded, and determined to stamp out all fun and enjoyment from society. But, as the singer Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) used to say, despite his studies in philosophy and religion, “cheerfulness kept breaking through”. And so it is for the Mundy sisters, but rarely if ever for all of them at once, and never for very long.

Completing the set of on-stage characters is Gerry Evans (Tom Riley), apparently from Wales but who speaks with a southern English accent, an affable man but one who doesn’t stay in the same job for very long. Well-travelled, he returns periodically to see his son Michael, which is honourable enough, although some later revelations about him effectively destroy any semblance of sympathy one otherwise might have had for him by the end of the show.

A lot of the play is talking heads, although there is – just about – enough dancing to justify the show’s title. Still, it won’t appeal to everyone, because aside from Maggie’s riddles and Jack’s anecdotes, it’s all more than a bit gloomy, and the play’s ‘life’s a bitch and then you die’ perspective doesn’t exactly send the audience out feeling euphoric. A comparison with Chekhov’s Three Sisters doesn’t work for me, if only because of Irish emigration both before and after the events of the summer of 1936 portrayed in the play. This production achieves a decent balance between letting the story be told through Michael’s narration as well as through the sisters’ dramatisations. There are excellent performances from the five sisters in this engaging and deeply reflective show.

Review by Chris Omaweng

Harvest time in County Donegal, 1936.

Outside the village of Ballybeg, the five Mundy sisters battle poverty to raise seven-year-old Michael and care for their Uncle Jack.

During the Festival of Lughnasa, Pagan and Christian meet and collide. The sisters fight each other, love each other, dance, yearn and survive.

Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning play is an astonishing evocation of a family’s world on the brink of change.

Josie Rourke directs this striking revival, with a cast including Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls), Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted) and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Translations)

Olivier Theatre
National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX
The event duration is2 hours and 45 mins including a 20 min interval
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/