1. Dancing at Lughnasa Brian Friel Reading and Studying Literature/A230B Banan Al-Daraiseh, AOU Spring 2014

2. Dancing at Lughnasa: Introduction A play written by Brian Friel (b 1929). It was first published in 1990. It was initially performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin Ireland in 1990. The play deals with migration and memory as main themes. The play is placed within an Irish literary tradition and it also draws upon a cosmopolitan sense of theatre developed in Russia and the United States. The Abbey theatre is associated with national cultural history

3. Background In the 1960 and 1970s Friel had four of his works performed at the Abbey Theatre. The 1980s plays were initially performed at the Field Day Theatre Company founded by Friel and Stephen Rea in the 1980s. Field Day Theatre was based in Derry Northern Ireland. The Troubles in Northern Ireland– the violent confrontation between Catholic Republicans (loyal to Ireland) and Protestant unionists (loyal to Britain) Troubles in the 1970’s leading to Bloody Sunday, 1972. Duscuss Good Friday Agreement 1998.

4. The Field theatre was founded with “the intention of finding or creating a space between unionism and nationalism and proving by example the possibility of a shared culture in the North of Ireland” pg. 240. The plays performed engaged with issues of Irish identity, Ireland’s colonial past and postcolonial present, the decolonization of the imagination, and the emergence of a new Irish identity. They were considered political plays.

5. Friel’s decision to have Dancing at Lughnasa performed at the Abbey theatre represents a new turn in his writing and relationship to the Field Theatre. The play as a source of liberation from ideological framework and constraints of the Field. A return to themes he addressed prior to the Field? The clash between a traditional culture and a modern industrial one? The play addresses the nuances of memory and migration.

6. Memory History seen as a mode of understanding the past in a structured and consensual way. Memory seen as a fluid and individual way of recalling the past. Introduce the play/ title/characters/ plot. Activity 1, pg 245: memory as a theme in the play. The theoretical device where Michael the child doesn’t appear on stage. Explain importance. The whole play as a memory play– 1936 August Different kinds of memory: still images & events in the past The different characters in the play making sense of their past. Discuss: Maggie, Jack, and memories of the dance

7. Activity 2, pg 246: how is the past accounted for in historical terms? August 1936 in the village of Balleybeg in County Donegal– the only specific date mentioned. The historical perspective is loosely presented– the narrator’s vintage point of presenting his story is vague. Little is mentioned of political events or historical observations in Ireland. The play’s sense of period and location is presented via the everyday details: social history. How? A society caught in transition: rural vs modernity. The play emphasizes memory over history. The personal against the historical. Using memory to articulate the everydayness of “home” in Ireland. Pg 250 Presenting a realistic & domestic setting?

8. Influenced by Chekov’s themes—realistic and domestic settings. Concerned with familial affairs. Chekov’s play, The Sisters. Influenced by Williams memory plays. Activity 3, pg 252: Realism vs memory