“When Michael looks back at his life, it’s the women he remembers – and in Rourke’s production, they’re what we remember too. The women and the dancing.”
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“This production may throw different aspects of the play into bold relief...but the play's sense of ectasy dampened down by circumstance, and worse, allows its putative intimacy to fill the reaches of the Olivier”
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"The crux of ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ is that it’s a sort of happy tragedy...It’s not bliss, but it is community, safety, sisterhood warmth, and dancing. A beautiful production of a beautiful play."
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"The scale of the Olivier – transformed into a bucolic paradise that seems to stretch as far as Tipperary – can work against the work’s subtlety and nuance, audibility an occasional issue."
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"The judgement of each performance makes this portrait of a family deeply affecting, but every aspect of the production honours a play that feels as fresh as the day it was written."
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"Even if you missed all the subtext, this show would still delight in its acute depiction of family dynamics...This play won Friel the Evening Standard Award for best play in 1991, and it still looks richly deserved."
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"The poetry seldom takes flight. Mark Henderson’s subtle lighting lends depth, though, to a production that gives the past a shimmering golden halo."
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"Movement lies at the emotional heart of this play and it is orchestrated with such delicate mastery by Wayne McGregor that the stomping scene, featuring the sisters dancing with wild abandon is a shared hedonistic escape, rebellious ritual and act of worship in one."
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