“Is the play about this?”

Is the play about this?

This note towards Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) is an example of Brian Friel’s habit of asking himself questions as part of his composition process.

The Creative Process

Robbie Blake, Denis Donoghue-inspired score

This unused score by Robbie Blake was inspired by their engagement with Denis Donoghue’s ideas around communication from his book Ferocious Alphabets (1981), which was a direct inspiration for Friel’s farcical play The Communication Cord (1982).

Video

Mixed interview, extract 3

Zosia Kuczyńska, Jessie Keenan, and Robbie Blake talk about their experiences of accessing Friel’s archives at the National Library of Ireland and how their thinking around archives has changed over the course of the project.

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Mixed interview, extract 4

Zosia Kuczyńska, Jessie Keenan, and Robbie Blake talk about the impact of the pandemic on the project.

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

Portrait: Sarah Ryan

Sarah Ryan is a dance artist based in Dublin.