Realising the spirit of the dance

ON THE occasion of its 25th anniversary, a new production of Brian Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa begins a four-day run An Grianán in Letterkenny tonight.

The show is the centre-piece of the new Lughnasa International Friel Festival, which takes place in Donegal and Belfast over the next 10 days. In addition, the festival will also host talks by the likes of Thomas Kilroy and Terry Eagleton, feature rehearsed readings of Friel classics such as Faith Healer and Lovers, and find time, too, for a variety of other curios, including — somewhat intriguingly — a kite-flying event.

One specific strand within the festival, ‘Amongst Women’, convenes a series of talks between prominent women artists, thinkers, and figures in public life. Those taking part include onetime Slits guitarist Viv Albertine, writer Lynn Barber, and Canadian singer-songwriter Feist.