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Oct 24 - Sisters dance out their passionate yearnings in Dancing at Lughnasa
What do you do when your world is about to change forever? You dance - at least if you're one of the main characters in Dancing at Lughnasa, the latest production by the Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology departments at Douglas College.
Set in Ireland on the eve of the Second World War, the Tony Award-winning play by Brian Friel centres on five sisters whose lives are about to be transformed as rural Ireland shifts into the Industrial Revolution and Europe prepares for war. Repressed by the stifling religious and political circumstances of the time, the Mundy sisters find release through dancing - at a time when all forms of dance were considered immoral by the Catholic Church.But the joyous and abandoned moments of dance are not catalysts to a bright future for the sisters.
"On the contrary, it's more like the last fling of the spinsters, where hope and passion and the present meet before the evening of their days sets in," says director Deborah Neville. "The Mundy sisters seem to dance out their passionate yearnings, seem for a moment to forget what they are otherwise so painfully aware of: that these moments are the final celebrations, before life changes forever."
Pre-WWII Irish society may seem like a lifetime and half a world away, but Neville says the play will resonate with audiences on both a personal and broader level.
"In the widest sense we can relate to this play through the impact of global economics and politics shaping our circumstances, then and now. Personally, and perhaps poignantly, we can understand the joy and laughter, the tenderness and desire, of a family who are unaware that their world is about to change forever. On that connected, emotional level, Dancing at Lughnasa could be my family in 2011 Vancouver, the Mundy sisters in 1936 Ballybeg or perhaps my great grandmother's family 50 years before that. It's timeless. That's the beauty of it."
Dancing at Lughnasa is presented by the Theatre and Stagecraft & Event Technology departments at Douglas College. It runs Nov. 4-12 at the Studio Theatre, Douglas College, 4140-700 Royal Ave., New Westminster. Tickets ($8-$12) are available through the Massey Theatre, 604 521 5050.
For more information see Arts Events or call 604 527 5723.
Douglas College is one of the largest colleges in British Columbia, providing a variety of bachelor's degrees, university transfer, career and post-degree programs for over 20,000 students each year.
For more information, visit douglascollege.ca.
