Smithson's novels feature in Brian Friel's Dancing At
Lughnasa. She was a Dublin-born Protestant who converted to Catholicism in 1907 and became a fervent republican.
Both Bill and Eileen have a wealth of acting experience between them with Bill, who trained as an actor at Drama Studio London, graduating in 1992, having been seen in a number of Tip Top's shows since 1994, including Return to the Forbidden Planet, Love Story, Oklahoma!, Our Day Out, Little Shop of Horrors and also Dancing at
Lughnasa alongside Eileen Reisin.
The Inside Two River event is taking place in advance of Two River Theater's production of "Dancing at
Lughnasa," taking the stage in April 2018.
Richard Rankin Russell's monograph seeks to add a fresh perspective to the growing body of critical writing on Friel's oeuvre by focusing on the importance of place in five plays: Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The Freedom of the City, Faith Healer, Translations, and Dancing at
Lughnasa. "Place" in Russell's reading encompasses public and personal spaces as well as metaphorical places; stage space is given rather short shrift in favor of an approach to the plays "through theories about the interrelationship between people and the land" (7-8), notably those of phenomenologists Gaston Bachelard (The Poetics of Space) and Edward Casey (Getting Back into Place).
McSorley spent much of As Fr Todd Unctious his early career working in theatre, notably at the Abbey, but also appeared in the original West End and Broadway productions of Brian Friel's Dancing at
Lughnasa.
I first achieved international acclaim in 1964 with Philadelphia, Here I Come!, and my subsequent works include Faith Healer and Dancing at
Lughnasa.
3 DANCING AT
Lughnasa (1998) OSCAR winner Meryl Streep showed she could master an Irish accent in this tale of five unmarried sisters in 1930s rural Ireland struggling to make ends meet on their farm.
Brian Friel's 1990 play, Dancing at
Lughnasa, is, in fact, reflective of socio-cultural status of women in 1936 Ireland.
A version of Faith Healer – the 1979 play from Irish writer Brian Friel, whose other works include Dancing at
Lughnasa and Translations – it does a difficult piece perfect justice.
Modernity, Community, and Place in Brian Friel's Drama contains five chapters, each dedicated to a major play: Philadelphia Here I Come!, The Freedom of the City, Faith Healer, Translations, and Dancing at
Lughnasa. Each chapter expands on the author's identified elements of modernism in the five plays and how they impact and relate to the immediate and distant communities in their environments as well as to each other.
He was recognized for many of his performances at Theatre West, most notably as Father Jack in "Dancing at
Lughnasa" and as Father Liam Leary in Ray Bradbury's "Falling Upward."