There is a marvelous mythic quality in the way the Irish handle words. Throughout history, few people have survived ongoing war, poverty and pestilence, drought and famine, to capture the resilience of the human spirit better than Irish poets and dramatists. Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel's burnished portrait of one family's struggles in 1930s rural Ireland, is a perfect example of this mystic sensibility.
A bittersweet memory play, it is told through the eyes of the adult Michael (Tim Banning), who recalls his childhood during the harvest festival of Lughnasa—a pagan ceremony that was celebrated with wild abandon and drunken revelry. Life could not be crueler than it was for the five sisters—all of them unmarried, including his mother—who lived together in County Donegal. But the homespun fabric of their harsh lives was interwoven with bawdy laughter, good-natured irreverence, boundless joy, and hope for the future—all of which tempered the rigid Catholicism, dire poverty, and rural superstitions that surrounded them.
To perform this hauntingly beautiful play with all of its music, dance, and soulful nuance requires extraordinary actors in touch with the Celtic blood of its characters. Kudos to director John Lant and his superb cast, who deliver Friel's touching material with convincing Irish flair. The ensemble is first-rate: Susan E. Taylor as Maggie (the spitfire rebel); Sasha Harris as Aggie, the loving protective sister, who looks after the mentally challenged Rose (delightfully portrayed by Dawn Walters); Karen Kähler as Kate, the strict disciplinarian head of the family, who ekes out a small salary as a school teacher; and Johnna Adams as Michael's mother, who repeatedly falls for Gerry (Christopher Goss), a blaggart full of Irish blarney. Also excellent is John Gilbert as Father Jack, the missionary uncle who goes off to Africa to save lost souls but goes native instead and is sent home to die. Special credit goes to Karen Kahler for the marvelous Celtic dance routines and to dialect coach Michael Patrick Breen.
"Dancing at Lughnasa," presented by and at the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. July 3-Aug. 7. $18-20. (562) 494-1014.