“Dancing as release and entrance to suppressed + almost forgotten truths”

What is vaguely forbidden?

In this note towards Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) dated 30 May 1989, Friel asks himself whether dance might be a means of expressing as-yet unidentified taboos.

The Creative Process

Lucia Kickham, 'Dance is...'

In this audio file, Lucia Kickham reads aloud from a group automatic writing exercise in which participants responded to the prompts ‘language is’, ‘music is’, and ‘dance is’.

Related Manuscript

Structure the ages.

In Friel’s play Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), the radio is an important theatrical device. Apart from connecting the Mundy sisters to an emerging modernity, it also functions as an almost supernatural presence as it makes sudden musical intrusions that disturb the domestic scene.

“A legacy is not a thing that you set in stone, it's something that you can put in motion.” – Zosia Kuczyńska

The Creative Process

Filming 'Running the Ending', 18 April 2021

These photographs were taken by Jessie Keenan during and between filming sessions for Robbie Blake’s short film ‘Running the ending’ at the Museum of Literature Ireland on 18 April 2021.

The Creative Process

Belfast Book Festival Trailer

A key phase in the development of ‘Don’t anticipate the ending’ was the showcasing of work-in-progress. This is a trailer for an illustrated talk at the Belfast Book Festival 2019, during which Friel scholar Zosia Kuczynska spoke about the process of creating new work by Jessie Keenan and Robbie Blake from creative encounters with the Brian Friel Papers.