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theatre · Friday 14 August 2026 · 8:00pm 
Dancing at Lughnasa by the Ballaghaderreen Players
At Backstage Theatre · Farneyhoogan, Longford, Co. Longford
At Backstage Theatre · Farneyhoogan, Longford, Co. Longford
The Ballaghaderreen Players make their debut at Backstage Theatre on Friday 14 August 2026 with Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, widely regarded as one of the great works of modern Irish theatre. The 8pm performance brings Friel’s memory play, narrated by the adult Michael Evans looking back on a single summer of his childhood, to a Longford audience for one night only.
Set in the fictional Ballybeg, Co. Donegal, in August 1936, the play follows seven-year-old Michael’s summer staying with his five aunts, the Mundy sisters, in the weeks around the pagan harvest festival of Lughnasa. Friel weaves together family, faith, poverty and the arrival of industrial change in rural Ireland, all filtered through Michael’s adult memory of a household where one moment of unrestrained dance becomes the story’s emotional centre. The Ballaghaderreen Players reformed in 2023 under director Julie Sharkey, timed to coincide with the first Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival, and have since staged Big Maggie, The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Field. This production of Dancing at Lughnasa played at St Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen in early August as part of that town’s arts festival before transferring to Backstage Theatre for this single Longford date.
Backstage Theatre is at Farneyhoogan on the edge of Longford town, a short drive from the town centre with on-site parking. The theatre has wheelchair access and assisted listening devices available.
An evening built around one of Brian Friel’s best-loved plays is a good reason to spend more time in the county town before or after the show. There is more to see in Longford and across Co. Longford.
Heading to Backstage Theatre in Longford? Longford has plenty more to see. Read the Longford area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Backstage Theatre? These Dublin tours book out in summer.