Poetic 'Dancing at Lughnasa' at APT keeps its secrets

Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times

At moments in “Dancing at Lughnasa,” the world of the Mundy sisters pauses. Each person gently sways, as though underwater. The light seems to ripple.

We watch these scenes through the scrim of memory, with the distortions, gaps and sentimentality that comes with it. This is how our narrator, Michael — and through a veil, playwright Brian Friel — wants to remember his mother and her sisters in the summer of 1936.

“Dancing at Lughnasa” plays at American Players Theatre through Sept. 27, a short run of just 13 performances in the Hill Theatre. Directed by Brenda DeVita, “Lughnasa” embraces Friel’s poetry, awash in golden light.

Friel’s semi-autobiographical play, with its complex women characters and bursts of lively energy, was a frequent pick for regional and community theaters a few decades ago. The late Madison Repertory Theatre staged it in 1994 (Forward Theater co-founder Celia Klehr played Rose). Madison Theatre Guild put it up in 2002.

“Lughnasa” remains an intimate family portrait, but in a post-pandemic light, it looks even more like a study in resilience. The Mundy sisters hold up under grinding poverty and isolation, their smiles like a kind of armor.

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