Dancing At Lughnasa

"Laughing wild amidst severest woe" is, of course, from a different play entirely. And we often don't think of Beckett as a distinctly Irish playwright, somehow placing his nationality squarely in Absurdistan or something (where he lives next to Ionesco, I suppose).

But that simple quote says as much about Irish theatre as any, and it finds a full expression in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. It's one of my favorite plays, and one I've read often. And every time I read it, I'm always carried away by the richly bittersweet emotion that runs through the script. The joyful dance of the sisters is always undercut by the tragedies of their past and their future.

But it's not a puerile pessimism, a negation of life's temporary joys by its eventual tragedies. The fact that death and sadness haunt these sisters never diminishes their laughter: it enriches it. Lughnasa's memory play keeps both future and past in view, brilliantly balancing the two. And that's why it hits me so strongly each time, that constant tension between the fullness of emotion on both ends of the spectrum.

Why should "Somebody Do This Play"? Well, I'm speaking specifically to the local area here on this one, as I know it's not exactly an under-produced play. But in a local talent pool brimming with talented women, there's no excuse to be constantly doing plays that have seven men and two women while leaving aside a wonderful ensemble piece that showcases this talent pool's strength.