SOURCE: "Rich Harvest," in The Spectator, Vol. 266, No. 8467, 20 October 1990, pp. 43-4.

In the following review of the London production of Dancing at Lughnasa at the Lyttelton Theatre, Edwards praises Friel's characterization of the five Mundy sisters.

Brian Friel's latest play is a poignant and sensitive piece of writing. Set in County Donegal in 1936, around harvest time, the play opens with a long and detailed reminiscence supplied by one of the characters, Michael. During the old Celtic festival of Lughnasa that summer, when Michael was just seven years old, two things of note occurred: his impoverished, Catholic family of unmarried women acquired a wireless, and his Uncle Jack arrived home from Africa where he had been a missionary. These elements combine suggestively in Michael's memory to create a humorously observed world, full of desolation and frustrated longing, on the point of irrevocable change. In addition Michael recalls two visits...