As an Irish proverb once said, “people live in each other’s shelter.” “Dancing at Lughnasa” made this proverb reality as a semi-autobiographical play performed Nov. 6 – 8. Written by Brian Friel, the play was directed by David Schuler, assistant professor of theater.

Photograph by Kate Olsen

“Dancing at Lughnasa” was written as a series of events that was narrated through recollections of an on-stage narrator, Michael Mundy. Mundy recollects the summer of 1936 and his encounters as a 7-year-old with his family. Michael, born out of wedlock, lived with his single mother and four aunts and uncles. None of the family practiced their Catholic religion. The Mundy family in the play lived outside of the fictional village Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland.

Ballybeg, meaning small town in Gaelic, is compared to the real Irish county Donegal in several of Friel’s works.

The play was written during the harvest time when many Celtics honor the Celtic god of the harvest, Lugh. Lughnasa comes from the dance associated with the festival, and the narrator focuses on that summer of his childhood when there was change within his family.

“The main thing for me, as far as adjusting to the time period goes, is identifying how different the moral values are from today,” Molly Ilten, senior mechanical engineering major, said. “Today, single mothers can often find help and religion is not necessary to conform to society.” Ilten played Michael’s Aunt Agnes in the play.

The cast underwent dialect lessons for the play, along with traditional Irish dancing lessons. As soon as the cast was set, Schuler gave the actors dialect CDs and booklets to help them learn the dialect. There were also regular visits from a dialect coach with the actors outside of their regular rehearsal time.

“With a play like this, we spent the initial rehearsal days sitting around a table, reading the play, discussing the worldand its effect on these characters, who these characters were and what their individual journeys were throughout the play,” Schuler said. “With only five and a half weeks’ rehearsal, the play would really challenge them to develop a character in a short period of time. Average rehearsal time for professional regional theatre today is three weeks.”

While learning the dialect for “Lughnasa,” some of the actors also struggled with the Irish accent.

“The two most difficult obstacles for doing an Irish accent is comfort and confidence,” Jared Baker, junior theatre major, said. “The confidence was a problem starting off because I would always wonder, while I was talking, if what I just said was the correct pronunciation.” Baker played the adult Michael.

Audience members were intrigued with the play because of the different cultural and time period portrayals.

“I liked how they based the play around Michael’s memories and how in his monologues he helped advance the story by giving background and future story information,” Melissa Klang, senior art major, said. “It was neat seeing the old traditional family life and close family ties, where brothers and sisters lived under one roof, worked and cared for one another.”