“It felt very intimate to have a view into the way in which he was thinking about things.”

Quote

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.

The Creative Process

Robbie Blake's blue notebook, 8

In this page from Robbie Blake’s project notebooks, Robbie sets out the aims and methodology of a week of workshops and rehearsals at Dance House in August 2020. They also make a note to ask Zosia Kuczyńska to record some monologues from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) as a tool for generating material.

“Dig back to move forward more clearly.” – Jessie Keenan

Related Manuscript

the notion of something forbidden

In this note towards Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), Friel suggests that the ‘core’ of the play might be the expression of the uncelebrated or taboo through the medium of dance.

The Creative Process

Dance House, 3 September 2020

This is a recording of a live improvisation by dancers Marion Cronin, Sarah Ryan, and Lucia Kickham whilst listening to Zosia Kuczyńska’s placeholder recording of the opening monologue from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1990).

“The phrase ‘don't anticipate the ending’ means ‘stay present’.” – Robbie Blake