Páipéir Brian Friel

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. In this note dated 21 May 1989, Friel gestures towards the importance of radio music as a means of accessing what he calls the language of dance, which provides a means of ‘saying’ the unsayable as various points throughout the play.

From MS 37,104/1, National Library of Ireland; copyright Brian Friel Estate, reproduced by permission.

Transcription

21 May.

What age is Fr. Jack? Much younger than he looks. Structure the ages.

/.|.\

Does Fr. Jack tell Rose the story of the house-boy + the dance? Does she instigate it at the end? (30 May) Does he tell it to Narrator?

Malaria – bad air.

/.|.\

Where is Chris in all this? Wife? Fiancee? Dead? At home with large, young family?

/.|.\

(1) The radio is much more important than a theatrical device to provide music. Explore that carefully.

(2) The play is NOT about Fr. Jack’s or the family’s Catholicism. That must be positively avoided.

(3) 30th May: Why not no. (2) – [illeg.] Fr. J. sent home because of his involvement with tribal rites; and bringing that other spiritual element into the home + thereby transforming it.

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The Creative Process

Robbie Blake's transcription of Friel's markings

This is Robbie Blake’s transcription of markings made by Brian Friel on a page of notes towards Dancing at Lughnasa (1990).

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

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).

The Creative Process

Jessie Keenan notes, 1

In this extract from Jessie Keenan’s project notes (8 July 2020), Jessie considers some of the possible core elements of what was, at the time, intended to be a live performance piece.