Dancing At Lughnasa

The story centres on five impoverished spinster sisters who live near Ballybeg in County Donegal, Ireland. With them are Michael, seven-year old son of the youngest sister and Jack, the sisters' elder brother, a missionary priest newly returned after twenty-five years in Africa. It is the summer of 1936 and the time of Lughnasa, a pagan harvest festival when the Irish country folk take to the hills for days of collecting bilberries and nights of wild dancing. The family's drab, impoverished existence is relieved only by the music from the occasionally working wireless and the memories of past Lughnasas. The events of that summer are narrated in recall by the adult Michael, unfolding a tender, poignant and humorous study which evokes the subtle and complex pattern of these characters' lives within their household and the community outside.

Cast

Michael - Peter O'Sullivan

Chris - Tiffany Saul

Maggie - Helen McCutcheon

Agnes - Janet D'Alton

Rose - Jane Brough

Kate - Rosemary House

Jack - Maurice Scarratt

Gerry - Tim Wellington

 

Directed by - Jill Kendal

 

From left to right: Janet D'Alton, Jane Brough, Helen McCutcheon, Tim Wellington, Tiffany Saul, Rosemary House

From left to right: Maurice Scarratt, Helen McCutcheon

Irish Dancing Lesson with Catherine Malone (front). From left to right: Janet D'Alton, Rosemary House, Helen McCutcheon, Jane Brough, Tiffany Saul