7. DHS - The Laurels

Shrine Seven: dance to the music of time. Location: 54.800685, -8.285022Location of graveyard: 54.787994, -8.274946Speakers: John Ward and Catherine ByrneTheme: gathering to be in touch with some otherness."When I sixteen, I remember slipping out one Sunday - it was this time of year, the beginning of August - and Bernie and I met at the gate of the workhouse and the pair of us went off to a dance in Ardstraw..." Maggie prior to the big dance to The Mason's Apron in Act One of Dancing at Lughnasa.This is the actual house where Brian Friel's aunts, the 'five brave Glenties women' of the play, Dancing at Lughnasa, lived together in the 1930s. Just off Station Road outside of the harvest fair town of Glenties, this is the site that inspired a modern masterpiece by a playwright at the height of his powers. In our audio piece, we recall the evening of the 11th August 1991 when the original Abbey Theatre cast came within 200 metres of the house to perform the play in front of the playwright in The Comprehensive school next door.  The Public Theatre and Professor Martin Andrucki summed up its power in their critique of the play's denouement: - 'In the last lines of the play, the narrator Michael tells us that when he remembers that summer of 1936 everybody seems to be "[d]ancing, as if language had surrendered to movement...as if this ritual, this wordless ceremony, was now the way...to be in touch with some otherness. Dancing as if the very heart of life and all its hopes might be found in...those...movements. Dancing as if words were no longer necessary." Each of the characters in the play dances at some crucial moment: Gerry and Chris when they meet after a long separation, Father Jack when he celebrates the power of the Goddess, all the sisters when the sounds of the wireless bring them into contact with the outside world. What Michael suggests is that people dance at such moments because dancing provides a way to transcend the painful contradictions, conflicts, and uncertainties of ordinary experience. Dancing takes us beyond the everyday world of language and its ambiguities to a place where our hopes can be painlessly, though fleetingly, fulfilled. If the kites imply the conflicting emotions associated with change, both exhilaration and terror, dancing promises a deliverance from such inner conflict, allowing an experience of undivided happiness'. Yes, it's that good. The play is a remarkable tribute to the Mundy sisters' spirit and from this meagre setting did such a magical story evolve. Try and see the play being performed by a good cast playing the Mundy sisters. Meryl Streep can do many things (including outdrinking most people the night she opened this house with Friel some years ago no less), but the film is not a patch on the tour de force that is the play. Sadly neglected once again after a brief restoration after the release of the 1998 film, its current state is a reminder how great intentions can be quickly forgotten. With the death of Friel in late 2015, word came through in early 2016 of plans to buy and restore the building by a trust set up to establish a proper Friel museum.  When in the town, ensure you visit the graveyard where his uncle, Fr. Barney McLoone, (the man who inspired the play’s priest) as well as the grave of the writer himself, are located. Look out for a huge slab of black marble at the top right hand corner of the graveyard with the words ‘I just want to put my arms around you and hold you close’.RTÉ's Morning Ireland report on Friel's 1991 Olivier win.New York Times report on Friel's 1991 Tony award win. Audio taken from Donegal's Hallowed Sites on the Racontour Archive.Spotify URL: Donegal's Hallowed Sites playlist on Spotify