A GLIMPSE into the daily life of an impoverished Irish family is offered in Sinodun Players’ production of Brian Friel’s memory play Dancing at Lughnasa.

It might only recount the happenings in the Mundy household over just two days in 1930s rural Donegal, but for some of the family members it’s 48 hours that sees their lives changed forever.

Set in early August 1936 around the festival of Lughnasa, the Celtic harvest festival, the five unmarried Mundy sisters and Michael Evans, the seven-year-old son of the youngest sister, cope well with their hardships, through their own blend of humour, tenderness and tough love.

Despite poverty, prejudice and religious intolerance, particularly through the stigma of a child born out of wedlock, the women’s lives are full of optimism and humour— and when things get rough, they find emotional release in the joy of dancing.

But when their frail elder brother Father Jack returns after 25 years as a missionary in a leper colony in Africa, the sisters, Kate, Maggie, Agnes, Rosie and Christina, begin to question their allotted roles as they face change.

The story is told through the eyes of a narrator as the now grown-up Michael, played by Joel Webster, looks back at the family’s time living in a cottage outside the fictional town of Ballybeg in County Donegal.

The eldest of the sisters, Kate, played by Rebecca Cleverley, is a schoolteacher and the only one with a well-paid job. Agnes and Rose (Niki Pusey and Annabelle Buckland) knit gloves to sell in the nearby town, earning a little extra money for the household, and also help Maggie (Kirsty Elkin) with the housework.

Maggie and Christina, Michael's mother, played by Louise Print-Lyons, have no income at all. Completing the Players’ eight-strong cast are Nick Quartley, as Jack, and Dan Beacham, who plays Gerry Evans, Michael’s father.

The 1990 play, which has won many awards and is an A-level set text, is a particular favourite of Sinodun director Ric Harley.

Ms Harley said: “I love this play. My dad was Irish with strong connections to the North and I have a particular affinity with it.

“It’s a fantastic vehicle for the actors; and for the director it’s a wonderful opportunity to explore character and help our actors to portray those characters realistically so the audience can get the sense of a family and not just actors playing parts.

“You can achieve this if you have actors who know each other and work well together and we are lucky enough to have that at the Corn Exchange.”

She added: “As for the play itself, it’s funny, clever, witty, moving and sad — all those things. It’s about human nature; it’s about family and we all know what families are like, how they bicker, argue but ultimately love and support one another.

“But this play is also about the effect the outside world is having on this family and how it ultimately tears it apart. “It’s 1936 and they are struggling but we see how their optimism and family loyalty helps them cope, until the balance is tipped with devastating consequences.

“It will be a brilliant night in the theatre.” The play is being performed at The Corn Exchange, Wallingford, from Wednesday to Saturday, October 23 to 26 at 7.45pm, with a question-and-answer talkback session after the performance on the Thursday. Tickets £10 are available from the box office on 01491 825000 or online at: cornexchange.org.uk