Dancing at Lughnasa

I must admit that I hate watching stage plays. I like musicals though. The last musical I saw was Mamma Mia in Las Vegas.

Last Sunday, I watched SUNY Brockport's production of Dancing at Lughnasa. We were required to write a review of the play for a course I am taking now. To my surprise I liked it. However, not to an extent that I'd hit the ceiling. It is too Irish. Well, it is an Irish play written by an Irish playwright. In a way, I am in awe by the talents of the actors, especially Keenan Bloom who is just in high school. But what a powerful presence does he have on stage. And his voice was so thick and booming.

Here's my review:

The challenge posed by the play Dancing at Lughnasa is testing one’s ability to recall the past.

The College at Brockport’s recent production of Brian Friel’s Tony-winning play posed a clash between the elements of form versus the elements of content. This clash may be the reason why some people who have watched the play find it lacking coherence.

Dancing at Lughnasa is the story of the Mundy sisters: Kate, played by Amanda Charlebois, a conservative school teacher and the only person in the house with a job; Maggie (Andrea Macy), the impulsive sister and family chef; Rose (Nikki Trombley), a simpleton who is unabashed with her infatuation for a married man; Agnes (Rachel Soloman), who looks over Rose, and Christina (Callie Jean Slusser), an unwed mother.

The story is narrated by Michael Evans (Spencer Christiano), Christina’s son. The year was 1936, Michael recalls the Mundy sisters’ struggle to keep their lives intact despite the limited resources and the arrival of their only brother, Jack, a missionary, in a small village of Ballybeg, Ireland.

Friel’s technique in using the adult Michael as the narrator without requiring the young Michael to be physically present on stage is significantly innovative. As Michael goes through the scenes when he was 7 years old, the audience learn that the sisters love him despite that he was born out of wedlock. He is the center of their lives.

It takes time, however, for the audience to grasp the essence as to why the actors speak to an “absent” Michael. This method may be reflective of formal element. The adult Michael stand on the side of the stage, explicating the various scenes; erstwhile answering questions from his mother and aunts when the scene needs it.

There is a connection as well as detachment of the self when Michael narrates the story. How he pieces together his memory is a challenge. As with other plays or movies dealing with recollection, it is a challenge to show the details of the past. In Dancing at Lughnasa, Michael showing what happened to the Mundy sisters when he was just seven is technically out of place. There is a certain kind of struggle, the shaping and unshaping of repressed emotion and the struggle to regain what was lost. This question was left for the audience to unravel.

Keeping the story interesting are Fr. Jack, who just came back from Uganda, and Gerry Evans (Keenan Paul Bloom), Michael’s sweet-talking father. The sisters are concerned with Jack’s recent unconventional views on the Catholic Christian faith after his missionary work, particularly that he wove the cultural and religious fanaticism in Africa in their conversation. Kate, on the other hand, struggles to keep the family intact and assures her sisters that Jack will be able to hold Mass soon in the village. She is also keeping eye on Gerry has come back to woo Christina.

John Haldoupis’s use of rustic stage setting allows the audience to feel a scenic experience. The kitchen is the set’s focal point. However, the dim lighting makes the scenery gloomy, almost giving the impression of a dark, disjointed story. Meanwhile, it is notable that costumes were in sync with the time period the play would like to convey.

The use of accent may be cumbersome to some, but it can be ignored. Although it is comical to note that the actors alternate American, British, and Irish accents. That doesn’t matter. The inconvenience language bring is masked by the structure of the story. No matter how you say the word, “dancing,” will still be an English word.

On the other hand, Daryl Acevedo, who played Fr. Jack, seemed to be the missing linked in the play. He is calculating with his lines and it showed in his facial expression. In fact, he delivered his lines with a British accent. Meanwhile, Keenan Bloom proved to be the actor to watch out for. Not only does he have the debonair good looks, but his acting skill is concentric, almost polished. The high school senior can stand against all the other actors with his booming voice and appeal.

Francis X. Kuhn, who directed the play, may have been faithful to the script, but he could have given the simplistic style of Friel’s story a new twist. If some viewers found the play boring, it is because they are uninitiated in the language of form. Overall, Kuhn presented a knowing eye on stage elements, texture, and color.

Keenan Paul Bloom (with soft and bouncy hair)

The artists rendetion of the set