Dancing at Lughnasa

The play Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel is finishing its run this week at Curio Theater, just down the Avenue from my place. It's a great play that I was not familiar with, performed brilliantly.

A Catholic priest returns from missionary work with lepers in Uganda and his family back in Donegal is puzzled because he seems to have been converted to the gods he discovered there. What a delight that Ireland has its own pagans too, dancing in the hills!

It happens that I hobnobbed with lepers in India years ago, and that coincided with the end of my interest in practicing any religion. That was just one of many points in the play that spoke to me personally.