The curtain comes up and we see Finn McCool on his throne. He recaps the events that happened before we meet him basically mourning his loss of Grania to his best friend. We can see Diarmuid and Grania holding each other laying on the floor. While the rest of the Fianna dance around them in those black long skirt-like things. In fact, they are very big pants. I don't think they should have openned with this because it starts with them together and then goes back to the beginning.
At the Court of Finn McCool:
This was a pretty fun number. Some of the Fianna and their women greet Finn with a bow/curtsy before taking off in a soft/hard shoe dance. The dancers has some nice costumes. They were colorful but not too bright which I liked for this dance. In this dance, we meet Diarmuid and he leads the troupe in a scene closing high speed dance.
Grania's Arrival:
Grania comes to court to meet her betrothed. This scene only contains Finn and Grania. Grania expresses her happiness with her fiancee by doing a solo slip jig for him. I disliked her costume during this because she wore a white shirt and long red skirt which she had to hold up at her hips the entire time while dancing. It just looked like it was in the way during the dance but the choreography was beautiful.
The Training:
This male acapella routine was the best I've ever seen. I was lightning fast and very exciting. The guys were soooo fast and Colin Dunne was even faster! Of course, they were wearing all black during this number but I was very impressed by what they did at the end of the scene. You wouldn't expect it!
The Gift of the Bodyguards:
Finn gives Grania four bodyguards in this dance. I was very confused by this because I didn't have any idea as to what they were doing. It looked like she was dancing around with four guys while her betrothed watched.
The Female State of Mind:
We finally meet Deirdru, Grania's friend. She and the women of court get together to dance a very graceful slip jig. I didn't like the costumes very much in this number either because it seemed that there was too much of the same color top when it seemed that they were trying to have only two girls with the same costume on.
The Hooley:
This dance was very similar to the Siamsa of Lord of the Dance but there were two exceptions. The dancers paired up into male-female couples and were wearing bright colors. The exceptions were it was all in hard shoe and the choreography was more amazing! I loved this dance!
Diarmuid's Reflection:
The scene starts out with an instrumental from Solas and then fades into a solo fiddler. Then Diarmuid enters and dances with the fiddler. The audience experiences Diarmuid's funner side as he competes with the instrumentalist. Colin looks sooo good in this! He wears leather pants, an iridescent brown shirt and a dress coat over it. As he turns and jumps, the longer part in the back flies. It just gives the dancer a flowing look.
Meeting In A Late-Night Bar:
This is the best scene!!!! Solas comes back out and so do some dancers. Diarmuid arrives and they set up stools. But wait, here comes Grania. This is the first time Diarmuid and Grania meet. So all the dancers sit down and chair dance! The literally tap while sitting on their stools. The dancing spirals into a faster and faster pace while Diarmuid and Grania get closer and closer.
On Dangerous Ground:
The previous scene runs into the next when all the dancers come out to accompany them. D & G dance with each other and hold each other but are torn apart numerous times by the other partying dancers. The scene ends with the lovers yearning to just touch each other which leaves the audience wanting more at the end of this first act.
At the Wedding of Finn and Grania:
This scene opens with Finn and Grania on the bridge with Diarmuid witnessing the marriage at Finn's left hand. Grania and Diarmuid only have eyes for each other and Finn senses there is something that is going on that he doesn't know about. The courtiers are on the floor dancing in couples and celebrating the wedding festivities. After the wedding, the trio on the bridge come descend and join the revelers. Colin dances in the center of the dancers' formation with his quick feet. He is wearing black pants, black tie, white dress shirt, and an off-white jacket similar to the jacket he wears in Diarmuid's Reflection. He looks faboulus but his jacket clashed with all the pure white costumes around him. Now onto Jean's costume...this was the ugliest thing I've ever seen! It was a plain white ankle length dress and then the front was cut all the way up to mid-thigh length! Anyway, I guess they were going for the wedding dress look but she has to dance in it. So, she dances with the party-goers and I think I remember her doing a solo. When I was watching her, I saw that the back of the dress was getting caught between her legs. This took away from the beauty of the dance because I think she added a few more kicks in than there were supposed to be because she was trying to kick it out from between her legs.
Grania's Betrayal:
The previous dance flowed into this number. Deirdru and a few other females came out with silver goblets and handed them out to the rest of the girls. Jean and the girls were dancing their "she-wolvish" webs around the guys with their goblets. Again, Jean's dancing was interrupted by her dress! Finally, at the end, the men drink the sleeping potion.
The Lovers in Flight:
After Diarmuid and Grania flee from the fallen men, a duet performs a love song on a wing of the bridge. We see the lovers running through the forest together. They dance in soft shoes with each other showing the audience their love. Their clothing is now in shambles from the forest.
The Fianna Awaken:
We now come back to the men who are now just waking from their drugged sleep. They are bound in fabric and slowly rise. This acapella routine is very interesting. They begin dancing while still drugged and stand on unsturdy feet. Then the men finally start building their speed up and dance of their uncertainty. Their dancing becomes lightning fast and at the end, they burst out of their bindings with a roar.
Finn's Cry For War:
The furious Finn calls the Fianna to arms to find the fleeing lovers. He is also enraged by the women's betrayal of him so he forces them to search for Diarmuid and Grania with the Fianna. The men start their hard shoe dancing and the women appear behind them with their burgundy overcoats (these were not needed!). The troupe prepares for the search with a warm-up dance.
The Pursuit and a Death:
The Fianna search and find the lovers in the forest sleeping on the ground. The search party creates a circle around Diarmuid and Grania and start dancing. They tighten the circle around the now standing couple. Diarmuid dances a solo to break out of the confinement but they are too strong. Grania is ripped from the encounter by Finn's new right hand man. She is prohibited from returning to Diarmuid who is dancing violently to escape. The tapping climaxes and Finn runs into the center of the circle and stabs Diarmuid. Finn lets him drop and the Fianna flee. Grania is left standing their with four Fianna looking on at the corpse of her love.
Grania's Lament:
Grania now does a slip jig repeating some of the choreography that she and Diarmuid danced together in "The Lovers in Flight" except it is more dramatic. She mourns Diarmuid and pushes the remaining men away. They, one by one, walk away from the site. Grania finally lies down next to Diarmuid and the scene ends.
Epilogue:
The troupe is together once again. They do one last hard shoe routine to end the show with a bang. Diarmuid and Grania dance together leading the troupe. In my opinion, this last dance wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I was expecting a lot more amazing choreography because many of the other dances were wonderful.
In conclusion, I'd like to contribute these last bits of opinion...Jean looked absolutely unhealthy especially when she wore a mid-drift shirt in the first scene, Colin Dunne's dancing was superb, Finn McCool's immobile role was a disappointment (he didn't dance!), the costumes definitely need work, they need to build up the second act because most of the muscle was in the first act, and they really need to turn down the volume of Finn's dialogue. On a scale of 1 to 10, my rating was a 6.
