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Dancing sisters | | |
The
Stage Review
Our stage reviewer Paul Gubbins
went along to North Staffordshire's New Vic Theatre to see an adaptation of Dancing
at Lughnasa | |
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Lunacy. Say the word
with a hint of Irish and you'll be able to pronounce - more or less - the title
of the New Vic's current production Dancing at Lughnasa.
Otherwise,
how would you say it? Probably 'lugnasa' (as in the American space agency) and
then you'd appear a twerp when you rang the theatre for tickets.
I dwell
on language because (this might strike you as obvious) words are essential to
a play - any play - but especially to Dancing at Lughnasa.
One
of the characters, returning from a long stint in Africa, finds it difficult to
recall English because of exposure to Swahili. Then, towards the end, playwright
Brian Friel suggests that dance can express things unsayable in ordinary language.
In other words … in other words.
Dancing at Lughnasa is a deep
and multi-layered play. Superficially it tells of an Irish family of spinster
sisters in the 1930s coping with change: the advent of the radio and dance music,
the loss of traditional cottage industry to factories.
But there are darker
forces at work: ancient pagan rituals performed in the surrounding hills, which
mirror the African celebrations lovingly described and, indeed, performed by the
spinsters' uncle Father Jack - a Catholic priest working in a leper colony but
sent home having disgraced himself, as the expression runs, by 'going native'.
At one point Father Jack tells of an African ceremony which begins slowly
but, gathering momentum, eventually involves the entire community. Gwenda Hughes'
production of Dancing at Lughnasa resembles that ceremony.
The play begins
slowly - rather too slowly, until the appearance of Father Jack - but, like some
snowball rolling down a hill, increases gradually in size and momentum to reach
its seemingly inevitable conclusion.
I have refrained from singling out
individual cast members because all are deserving of mention - not least for their
dancing skills. These days the New Vic has a knack of putting together superb
ensembles and this one is no exception. They do full justice to the play, to the
theatre and to themselves.
Dancing at Lughnasa runs until May 21
2005. Pardon the pun, but it would be lunacy to miss it.
Review by Paul Gubbins
Want
to send in a review of something you've seen at a local theatre? Simply send your
reviews to us at:
stoke@bbc.co.uk
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