Sheffield – Saturday 13 September 2025
The presses are rolling, and we’ve got a first look into the newsroom of rehearsals at Sheffield Theatres, where Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa is taking to the Crucible stage from 13 September – 4 October 2025.
This isn’t just any revival – it marks the very first production directed by Sheffield Theatres’ incoming Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman. And like any strong headline, it comes with a co-production partner: after its Sheffield run, the show transfers to Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from 10 October – 8 November 2025.
THE STORY THAT SHOOK BALLYBEG
On the quiet edges of Ballybeg, five sisters live lives hemmed in by duty and the watchful eyes of tradition. But when the festival of Lughnasa bursts into their world, the air crackles with forbidden music, restless feet, and the dangerous promise of change.
Brian Friel’s landmark play doesn’t just whisper of memory – it thunders with longing, loss, and the unstoppable tide of modernity crashing through a fragile family home. Expect passion, heartbreak, and a dance that can’t be silenced.
Hot off the casting desk:
- Martha Dunlea – Christina
- Kwaku Fortune – Michael
- Frank Laverty – Jack
- Rachel O’Connell – Rose
- Siobhán O’Kelly – Margaret
- Laura Pyper – Agnes
- Natalie Radmall-Quirke – Kate
- Marcus Rutherford – Gerry
With Rosemary Boyle and Richard Galloway as Swings.
CREATIVE TEAM
- Director – Elizabeth Newman
- Designer – Francis O’Connor
- Movement Director – Sundeep Saini
- Lighting Designer – Chris Davey
- Composer & Sound Designer – Pippa Murphy
- Casting Director – Arthur Carrington
- Associate Director – Amanda Collins
- Birkbeck Assistant Director – Sadie Mears
- Fight Director – Kaitlin Howard
- Associate Lighting Designer – Mark Distin Webster
Whether you’re in Sheffield or Manchester, this is one headline you’ll want to read in person. Dancing at Lughnasa promises a season-defining story, inked in memory and printed straight onto the heart.
Dancing at Lughnasa | Sheffield Theatres Crucible | Sheffield Theatres
Dancing at Lughnasa – Royal Exchange Theatre
GRACE’S COLUMN: Why Lughnasa Still Makes Us Dance
I’ll tell you what, Village folk – some plays don’t just sit on the page, they rattle around your bones. Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa is one of them.
On the surface it’s five sisters in Donegal keeping house, but underneath? It’s about the moment you feel life slipping past while the world outside is galloping ahead. Haven’t we all been there – the itch to break free, the “one more dance” before responsibility shuts the gramophone off?
What strikes me is how timeless it feels. Lughnasa might be set in the 1930s, but the tug-of-war between tradition and change is bang up to date. In a world where we’re all told to behave, conform, or keep house (literally or metaphorically), the Mundy sisters remind us what it means to want more. To laugh. To fight. To dance, even if the neighbours are peeking through the curtains.
And let’s not forget – this is Elizabeth Newman’s first outing as Sheffield Theatres’ Artistic Director. You can feel the weight of expectation in that rehearsal room already. No pressure, Liz, just the eyes of the entire theatre village watching!
So here’s my two-penn’orth: don’t see Dancing at Lughnasa expecting polite nostalgia. Go because it still has teeth, because it still dares to ask “what if we said yes to the music?” And go because, quite frankly, we all need reminding to dance before the future comes knocking.
Until next time,
Grace x
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