Dramaturgical Packet.

Brian Friel personally found much useful information on festivals for Dancing at Lughnasa from a large study of the harvest festival done by Máire Mac Neill. Mac Neill lists ten locations in Donegal specifically that were regular places for festivals in which people came together to dance and have bon fires. This keeps the Lughnasa festival alive in these parts of Ireland where Catholic rule was still counteracting with pagan festivities, a huge theme in Friel’s “Dancing.” One of the activities of this festival that Mac Neill stresses is the picking of bilberries which Friel adds in his play. Sisters Rose and Agnes pick bilberries as an economic activity, but this activity still leads Rose to the back hills to meet her boyfriend, where she comes into contact with festival on-goings. Whatever goes on with her and her boyfriend in the back hills reinforces the erotic feel of the Lughnasa festival. Another concept in Friel’s play that lines up with the Lughnasa festival is the new wireless set that the Mundy sisters purchase. The music of this wireless set, which Maggie originally wanted to name Lugh, becomes a catalyst for the sisters’ natural animalistic impulse to move wildly and dance, just like the people at the Lughnasa festival. Each sister slowly succumbs to the beat of the music, leaving behind for a second their modest, simple lives of housework. They give into their impulses and begin to move erratically to the rhythm.Many critics call this moment of exhilarating, spontaneous release by the Munday sisters a Dionysian moment, as Dionysus is the god of wine, merrymaking, theatre, and ecstasy. The sisters find hidden ecstasy from deep down inside them when they hear the music and begin to dance. All that was forbidden suddenly comes out of them in an animalistic frenzy. Before this Dionysian moment, the sisters even fancy the thought of going to the harvest dance. They all become excited and enthusiastic until Kate, the eldest and most modest of the sisters, forbids it, reminding them that they are followers of Catholic faith, and have certain social positions. This foreshadowing of the Dionysian scene, followed by the frenzied dance of the sisters demonstrates the power of puritanical repression (Walsh).