Last Chance

“Dancing at Lughnasa”: It takes exceptionally fluid performances to maneuver through the intricate, emotional steps of Brian Friel’s achingly eloquent memory play about an impoverished rural Irish family facing an end-of-summer harvest season in 1936. Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre Company proves up to the challenge, with a stellar cast that evokes a bygone era in a foreign land with convincing naturalism. The play’s meandering story line is likely to puzzle some viewers and frustrate others. The sense of family, with its crisscrossed affections and loyalties, is palpable among the five Mundy sisters.

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Ends Sunday at the Rubicon Theatre Company at the Laurel, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. (805) 667-2900.