Review: Portland Stage's DANCING AT LUGHNASA Plumbs Realm of Memory

Portland Stage opened its 2015-2016 season with a thought-provoking production of Irish playwright Brian Friel's award-winning drama Dancing at Lughnasa, a wistful memory play about a matriarchal family in County Donegal in 1936. Commonly considered Friel's masterpiece, the drama examines the narrow, restricted lives of the Mundy sisters, constrained by poverty, unfulfilled dreams, and the conventions of Catholicism, as recounted by Michael, the "love child" of one of the sisters, Christina, who tells the story from the dual perspective of a seven-year-old child and a grown man three decades later.

This device, which accounts for some of the play's most poetic moments, is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie, and allows the audience to unwrap the numerous layers of the past in search of some kernels of revelation. And while the play is dominated by the symbolism of dancing to the wireless - a call to freedom, escape, joy, by the juxtaposition of pagan and Christian ritual, and by the contrasting isolation of the small village life with the brewing tempests of the outside world, essentially, it is a personal drama rather than a political or philosophical one. At its heart are the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of its very human characters.

Sally Wood directs with a sure sense of the quirky individuality of the five women and the three men in their lives, and she maintains a deft and sympathetic touch in limning each of the very individual characters. Her sense of pacing, however, is a little static, emphasizing the fits and bursts of memory rather than its liquid flow, and overall the two hours-fifteen minutes could use a bit of tightening. The choreography for the dancing - a central motif - by Betsy Dunphy and Ron Botting is simple and serviceable, though rarely gives a sense of the transport dance and music offer these characters. Moreover, there is an unevenness of accents - something a dialect coach might have helped - that is mildly jarring.

Fortunately, however, the cast is, for the most part, outstanding. Laura Houck is a weary, beleaguered older sister Kate; Tod Randolph as Maggie contributes mischief and humor to the household; Emma O'Donnell is a fragile, mousy, repressed Agnes, who comes to life when she dances; Keira Keeley is a slightly manic Rose with moments of wild exuberance and dark brooding, and Julie Jesneck is a vibrant Rose, full of laughter, compassion, and love of life. Paul Haley as their brother Jack, a priest mysteriously changed by his missionary work in Africa, is appropriately disoriented, though he shows no linguistic signs of originating in Ireland. Tim Venable, likewise, is not convincing as a Welshman, though he does bring a wild insouciance to the ne'er do well, yet good-hearted Gerry, who romances Christina before running off to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Deeply memorable is Tony Reilly's portrayal of Michael Mundy, narrator and seven-year-old boy. Note perfect in the cadences of the dialect, Reilly manages to capture the difficult duality of being a boy and a man at once, and his final monologue is delivered with wrenching reflection and great poetry. And on a personal note, it is a pleasure to welcome Reilly back to the stage after a year of personal trauma and tragedy.

Anita Stewart supplies the attractive unit set, a combination of garden and interior, that perfectly suggests the rural setting, which Bryon Winn lights in a pleasingly soft palette of nostalgic pinks and yellows. Kathleen Brown provides the period costumes in complementary neutral shades to round out the fine visual aesthetic. Seth Asa Sengel adds the sound design with its crucial 30s dance music.

Once again, Portland Stage has demonstrated its commitment to bringing the best of contemporary drama to Maine and to challenge its audience to engage thoughtfully and emotionally with the stage.

Photos courtesy of Portland Stage

Dancing at Lughnasa runs from September 29 - October 25, 2015 at Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME 207-774-0465 www.portlandstage.org

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