The five Mundy sisters are dancing inside and outside their cottage in northwestern Ireland to mark the beginning of the harvest. Their celebration is one of the few joyful times they’ll experience before forces beyond their control scatter the family.
True North Theatre beautifully brings to life Brian Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” at the Cyrus Pavilion at the University of Maine. In the Orono-based company’s 20th production, True North again lovingly and expertly presents a classic piece of theater that may be familiar to some theatergoers but unfamiliar to others. Over the years, True North has expertly performed iconic plays including “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Picnic,” “The Odd Couple” and “The Children’s Hour.”
“Dancing at Lughnasa” by Brian Friel is a memory play told by Michael (Patrick “Patty” Morris), who is recalling the summer he was seven, living with his mother, aunts and Uncle Jack (Jared Roxby), recently returned from Africa. It is also one of the last times Michael will see his father Gerry (Keith Evans), a traveling gramophone salesman.
Lugnasa is an ancient Cetic harvest festival held in early August. Friel set his play during the event at the Mundy family home in Bally Beg, County Donegal, Ireland, in 1936. It was a time of economic and social upheaval.
Friel, who died in 2015 at the age of 86, is considered to be modern Ireland’s leading playwright. “Dancing at Lughnasa” is his best known play. It premiered in 1990 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin before moving to London and Broadway the following year. Those productions won Olivier and Tony awards for best play.
Director Angela Bonacasa again brings together a talented cast and weaves a tight ensemble. No one actor outshines any other. Bonacasa uses the intimate space in the Pavilion so well that the audience feels like it’s peering over the fence next door to observe the amusing neighbors.
Sisters Chris (Aliza Dwyer), Maggie (Aimee Gerow), Kate (Kaddie Sharpe) and Rose (Deanna Rice) and Michael’s mother, Agnes (Holly Costar), share the cottage with Michael and Jack. The family struggles financially as Kate, teacher, is the only wage-earner while Maggie and Chris keep house and Rose and Agnes knit gloves to sell in town.
Each woman creates a unique character but they interact believably as siblings. Gerow is especially delightful as the sometimes dominant Maggie and Sharpe portrays Kate’s rigid adherence to Catholicism without making her a stereotype. The joy these actors find in these characters fills the Pavilion and washes over theatergoers.
Morris, Roxby and Evans, the only men in the show, hold their own in this sea of females. These characters easily could have gotten lost or forgotten but Bonancasa doesn’t let that happen. They are an integral part of the Mundy family and give layered performances, just as the women do.
Dialect coach D. Granke, an assistant professor of theater at the University of Maine, managed to get the cast to all use the same accents, a feat to be applauded. Community theater companies often have difficulty when a play calls for accents. Lauren Billings does a great job of choreographing the wonderful dances that give the play its title.
The design team of Tricia A. Hobbs (set), Scout Hough (lighting) Melissa Egolf (costumes), Inanna Piccininni (props) and Christopher Duff (sound) expertly create a cottage in rural Ireland in the mid-1930s. Together, they take the audience across the Atlantic and back in time 90 years.
With “Dancing at Lugnasa,” True North once again has shown that it is the most consistent and professional community theater group in Greater Bangor. This show sends the audience joyfully dancing all the way home.
True North Theatre Company’s production of “Dancing at Lughnasa” will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Cyrus Pavilion at the University of Maine. For tickets, visit linktr.ee/truenorththeatre.