Overview:
The Frontier Regional School Theater Ensemble is presenting Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa," which follows the story of five sisters living in rural Ireland in 1936. Instead of explosive dramatic scenes, the play's subdued plot explores themes like paganism and the toll of the Irish Industrial Revolution on ordinary people.
SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Frontier Regional Theater Ensemble invites audiences to travel back in time and across the globe to 1936 rural Ireland for Brian Friel’s 1990 play, “Dancing at Lughnasa.”
The production follows narrator Michael Mundy’s memory of a summer he spent in his aunts’ cottage in the fictional town of “Ballybeg” at 7 years old. Michael Mundy is the illegitimate son of Christina Mundy, one of the five sisters living in poverty.
The play takes place entirely inside the sisters’ cottage and yard, with their only window to the outside world being a radio they nickname “Marconi” that randomly jolts awake and plays 1930s hits and traditional Irish dance music, sparking random dance breaks, according to an audience guide from Bates College. Instead of firework drama or grand musical numbers, the play’s plot flows from the sisters’ everyday moments and adult Michael Mundy’s insights from the future.
“The plot is more subtle,” said Sofia Hebert, a senior at Frontier playing the second-oldest sister and jokester Maggie Mundy. “I think it makes it even more enjoyable for the audience because it’s not like, ‘Oh, let me guess what’s going to happen, the well-loved character is going to die off.”
Instead, Hebert said the play is a “look at how this family lives at this time period and how they interact with each other and how the little things within their life, it’s their whole life.”
Hebert said the play’s subtlety also clears space on stage for character development.
“With this, it’s more personal, and so that allows for me to really go deep within my own character— of course she’s silly and she makes jokes, but what do we not know about her and how should I bring that out on the stage?”
Director Gian Di Donna picked the play after watching its original New York City production several years ago. He said complex themes charge the show’s quiet scenes, including the destruction of Irish individuals’ lives during the Industrial Revolution and the “fine line between Paganism and Christianity.”
“I think Paganism still lives beneath the artifice of certain sects of Christianity, and I like that this play is bold enough to address that and shows it,” Di Donna said.
The fall play will mark senior McCavery Burgess’s 17th production. In “Dancing at Lughnasa,” he plays narrator Michael Mundy, a challenging role with many monologues to memorize.
“It’s been an entirely different challenge that I’ve never had to deal with,” Burgess said.
But the endorphin rush of acting and connection with his castmates makes the memorizing worth it for Burgess. When he pictures bowing at the play’s close, Burgess said, “I want the crowd to be very amazed and think, ‘Oh wow, I’m going to remember this.'”
Hebert started acting in eighth grade as an outlet not only for her love of singing and dancing, but also the silly side she shares with her character, Maggie Mundy.
“My parents describe me as very goofy. You can see in family photos when I started to get real crazy,” Hebert laughed. She said she admires her character’s outbursts of joy to cheer up her sisters, like belting out a song and dancing in the heat of an argument.
“That’s who I aspire to be just in general in my own life with my friends and family,” she said.
Hebert has also played sports, and described the bond between cast members as a different type of teamwork.
“With acting, it’s more how can we help each other, how can we make this scene deeper, how can we show the audience, assuming they’ve seen it a thousand times, how can we bring a new aspect to it together?”
While Maggie Mundy laughs and jokes around, oldest sister Kate Mundy runs the home with a cold air, according to senior Emily Woods, who plays the strict character. With a smaller cast for the fall play compared to the spring musical, Woods said the close-knit group of actors bonded as they juggle classes, homework and rehearsals together.
“It can be really stressful at times, everyone is super emotional because we’re so tired and working so hard,” Woods said. “But then when you’re on stage, it just all melts away and you’re the character, and all you can feel is the lights and what’s happening in front of you. That’s why I do it.”
The show will take place at the Frontier Regional School on Nov. 14 and 15 at 7 p.m. with a matinee on Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors.