About the Play

About The Play: “Dancing at Lughnasa”

Winner of the 1992 Tony Award for Best Play, this profoundly moving play is the semi-autobiographical story of playwright Brian Friel’s childhood. Set in County Donegal in August 1936, it is the story of the five Mundy sisters and is told through the memories of Michael, the love child of one of the sisters. It centers around the festival of Lughnasadh, the Celtic harvest festival. The play describes a bitter harvest for the Mundy sisters, a time of reaping what has been sown. The purchase of their first radio interrupts their spare existence with brief, colorful bursts of music and gives free reign to the women’s love of dancing. Widely regarded as Friel’s masterpiece, this beautifully written play is full of dark humor, passion and tenderness.

The play was originally presented at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1990. It showed at London’s National Theatre in 1991, winning the Olivier Award for Best Play, followed by its Broadway premiere in October 1991, where it won the Tony Award for Best Play as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play.

The Irish Repertory Theatre, Manhattan, staged a new 20th anniversary production of the play in 2011, directed by artistic director Charlotte Moore.

“Dancing at Lughnasa” was adapted for film in 1998 starring Meryl Streep as Kate Mundy and directed by Pat O’Connor. The film won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Female Role by Brid Brennan.

About The Playwright: Brian Friel

Described as the “Irish Chekhov” Brian Friel (b. 1929) is best known for his works “Philadelphia, Here I Come!” in addition to “Dancing at Lughnasa.” Both plays were adapted successfully into screenplays.

Friel’s fame came from “Dancing at Lughnasa”and the awards it garnered – several Tony Awards, including Best Play; the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Beforehand, in 1989, BBC Radio launched a “Brian Friel Season,” a series that was a devoted six-play season of his work; he was the first living playwright to receive such an honor. In 1999, Friel received a lifetime achievement award from the “Irish Times.”

Friel is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the British Royal Society of Literature and the Irish Academy of Letters. He has lectured in many European and American universities and has written and edited twelve books, including the definitive studies of Brian Friel and Lawrence Durrell, the histories of the Dublin Gate Theatre and of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, of which he is a Governor and an honorary Fellow.

Friel attended St. Columb’s College in Derry, Ireland and St. Pat’s College, Maynooth, Ireland.

About the Director: Miranda Cromwell

“Currently I am the Director of the Young Company at the Bristol Old Vic. This responsibility has seen me oversee the formation of theatre company, The Wardrobe Ensemble, through our pioneering initiative Made in Bristol. I have also taken the play Children of Killers by Katori Hall to the Cottesloe at the National Theatre and won an award for my artistic leadership with the production of Our Country’s Good at NSDF. I am a director, choreographer and performer who has spent five years working at the Bristol Old Vic developing outreach initiatives and professional productions that will engage a more diverse participation within the arts. With my own company, Twisted Theatre I have developed a form of ensemble theatre-making that explores a multitude of theatrical languages. In my time at Bristol Old Vic I have been assistant director for Tom Morris, Simon Godwin and associate director with Melly Still. This work has prepared me for directing in many different ways through devised and scripted work.  I have a keen interest in developing new audiences and experimenting with theatrical form and the nature of participation within Theatre.”

Education-

BA Hons from Dartington College of Arts

Directing Credits Include-                             

  • Talon (Bristol Old Vic, 2014)
  • Pigeon English (Bristol Old Vic: Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2013)
  • The Life After (Bristol Old Vic, 2013)
  • Hey Diddle Diddle (Bristol Old Vic, 2012)
  • Laundry Day (Twisted Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, 2012)
  • I Would Not (Tin Can Collective, Bristol Old Vic Studio, 2012)
  • In a Town (Twisted Theatre and The Dearheart Ensemble, Ferment, Bristol Old Vic 2011)
  • Sense (Bristol Old Vic, 2011)
  • Children of Killers (Bristol Old Vic: Cottesloe, National Theatre, 2011)
  • Our Country’s Good (Bristol Old Vic: NSDF, 2010)
  • Swarm (Twisted Theatre, dance film, 2010)
  • Othello (Twisted Theatre, Ferment, Bristol Old Vic 2010)
  • Fallen (Harbour Festival 2010)
  • BRAVE (Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal, 2009)

Assistant and Associate Directing Credits Include-

  • Coram Boy (Colston Hall, 2011) Associate Director
  • Swallows and Amazons (Bristol Old Vic, Theatre 2010) Assistant Director
  • Faraway (Bristol Old Vic, Theatre 2010) Assistant Director

Performing Credits Include-

  • The Stick House  (The Watershed, 2013)
  • Othello (Bristol Old Vic, 2010)

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