Review: Dancing at Lughnasa – People’s Theatre, Newcastle

The People’s Theatre pull off a convincing production of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa.

Although there are many comedic elements in Dancing at Lughnasa, particularly in the first twenty or so minutes, Friel’s memory play, first performed in Dublin in 1990, is ostensibly a drama.

Charting the lives of the five Mundy sisters in 1930s Ireland, Dancing at Lughnasa is told through the eyes of Michael (played here by Michael White), a brilliantly non-descript man who both breaks the fourth wall and interacts with the Mundy sisters as a seven year old.

Performances are all first class, as we’d expect from the People’s Theatre, with realistic and sympathetic portrayals; it takes a while to become attuned to the thick accents (this observation might be a little rich coming from a Geordie) are a little difficult

The deterioration of industry and employment around the sisters in 1930s Ireland, causing financial hardship and emotional insecurity, in the second half is familiar to audiences in present day audiences in here in Northern England.

The set design, by director Kate Wilkins, is efficient, with some religious iconography, and the temperamental wireless providing some neat symbolism for unreliability, and the importance of making the most of joy and dancing while we have it.

Dancing at Lughnasa runs at The People’s Theatre, Heaton, until 12 October 2013. Tickets are available on the door, from the theatre’s website, or by calling 0191 265 5020.