‘Dancing at Lughnasa as you’ve never experienced it in the theatre’’
The Canteen, St. Columba’s Comprehensive School, Glenties
August 1-3: Lá Lunasa Opening Weekend Previews
August 6-17 : Main Performance Run
Come and visit Glenties by the Bluestacks and see site-specific theatre come to life
at its rawest and most realistic for one of Ireland’s most famous and familiar plays.
You will sit within a grand visual setting akin to an art installation and when seated
you will be the walls of The Laurels house listening in on the five Mundy sisters. You
will experience the sisters’ sacral pagan dance in Act 1 with as much surprise and
delight as 35 years ago on the play’s opening night at The Abbey, Dublin. This is
Dancing at Lughnasa as never before, performed in the traverse and premiering the
play’s first multi-cultural cast in Ireland. Witness a recalling of the lives of 1930s rural
Irish women in the terroir of its original setting, only 50m away from The Laurels
homestead. The Marconi radio of Dancing at Lughnasa will burst into life bringing
the outer world to Glenties through a newly commssioned electro-acoustic sound
score by of the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) composer John D’Arcy (DJ
Marconi). Watch Act 1 in blazing brightness and Act 2 in a ghostly altered setting as
daylight fades. The production runs for the three weeks of the play’s own
chronology.
Stage Directors: Jonathan Burgess (stage director) & Dylan Quinn (choreography).
Composer: John D’Arcy (DJ Marconi)
Mise En Scène: DoranBrowne; Mise En Scène Producer: Margaret Kelly
Set Design: Jon Kelly; Stage Manager: Fiona Harkin
Scene Setting: Dancing at Lughnasa is set in The Laurels’ kitchen. Kate, the eldest
sister, is a schoolteacher. Our setting is the canteen of St. Columba’s School, 50m
from The Laurels. Our performance and original setting share the same ground,
previously that of a 19 th century workhouse and fever hospital. In the interval there
will be a guided tour to The Laurels house exterior and you will be given blueberries.
Cast: Jayne Wisener (Kate/Agnes), tbc (Agnes/Kate), Evlyne Oyekodun (Maggie),
Ruby Campbell (Rose), Lily O’Regan (Chris), Darren Kuppan (Gerry), Niall Cusack
(Fr. Jack) and rotating special guest narrator actors for Michael. Full cast announced
in June/July.
A copresentation with the Glenties Festival of Lughnasa.
Tickets: August 1-4 €25 & €19.90 (concession)
Time-Travel Tickets (same price)
Buy a special Act 1 & Act 2 time-travel tickets three weeks apart as in the play’s own
chronology. Only a limited edition of tickets will be allocated to choose to see Act 1
on August 1, 2 or 3 and Act 2 on August 21,22 or 23
