“Dancing at Lughnasa,” set in a rapidly changing time, is nostalgic and tugs at the heartstrings. At an outdoor theater surrounded by woods, presented by the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, strong performances led the night.
“Dancing at Lughnasa” is a memory play — the story is narrated by leading man Michael Mundy’s memory. The adult Michael reflects on the summer of 1936, as a child being raised by five unmarried sisters: Rose, Agnes, Maggie, Chris and Kate, while living in the fictional town of Ballybeg, Ireland.
The plot and themes of “Dancing at Lughnasa” are reminiscent of “Little Women" but with an unspoken growing tension amid the sisters waiting for an ugly release. Apart from a few instances, most of the show takes place inside the house and kitchen, emphasizing the very domestic existence and worries of these women.
For instance, all of the sisters are excited upon getting a new radio for their house. It became their only reason to abandon their household chores for a while and dance to the music on it.
But more than the content of the story itself, it's the delivery by the actors that makes the story moving.
Among the four sisters, only Chris (played by Maggie Cramer) has a love interest, Gerry, a traveling salesman. The father of Chris’ child, Michael, assumes no responsibility and continually makes false promises.
Cramer brings life and energy to the play, navigating the tribulations and expectations of love. She plays the perfect starry-eyed, lovestruck, sometimes vain Chris who vacillates so painfully between hope and resignation. It’s a delight to watch the motley of emotions run across her expressive face, turning from flush to nervous to indignant or sometimes all of those at once.
Maggie (played by Colleen Madden) is sprightly, easygoing and serves as a bridge between
eldest sister Kate and the others who sometimes scorn Kate for imposing her conceptions of propriety on them.
There is no child actor to play the part of the kid Michael. Adult Michael responds when the character is summoned, as though the child of all those years ago still lives inside him and answers reflexively when called upon by his mother or aunt, reaching him across the gulf of time.
By the end, I was inthralled and wanted the play to keep on going just to see Maggie live her day-to-day life in her characteristic vivacious affect. That’s how one knows that the actor has cast her spell upon you.
We get brief glimpses into a different world through the brother Jack Mundy, who has returned home after 25 years in Uganda. Much to the chagrin of Kate, a devout Catholic, Mundy practiced the rituals of many different African religions while in Uganda. Jack Mundy isn’t the debonair youth he was anymore but is incapacitated, misremembering and forgetting a lot of things as the sisters listen with strained smiles.
The play ends on a nostalgic note, mirroring real life’s unpredictability. After the play ended, the audience members had the option to stay around for questions and a chat with the actors.
