THE WEIR
by Conor McPherson
Directed by Ciaran O’Reilley
Irish Repertory Theatre
Reviewed by David Spencer
Taking place in “a small bar in a rural part of Ireland,” The Weir features a few regulars, feisty old codger Jack (Dan Butler) and diffident, middle-aged Jim (John Keating), tended to by the wry bartender Brendan (Johnny Hopkins). Joining their ranks is one who has not made his presence known in these environs for a long time, the local business bigwig Finbar (Sean Gormley), escorting a lovely young lady, Valerie (Sarah Street) with such largesse that one may well wonder about his intentions, or the nature of their relationship. But Finbar, a married man, is more gentleman tan he would at first appear. She is merely renting one of his houses, and he has allowed himself to be charmed enough to squire her around town. One thing leads to another and before you know it, the denizens are exchanging ghost stories. Not folk tales, but accounts of odd things that have happened to them. Then, though she would not have planned it thus, Valerie finds that she too has a story she must tell…and it is the most devastating of all…
Under the direction of Ciarán O’Reilly, The Weir, in its second go-round at the Irish Rep—a remounting of its 2013 revival with three returning cast members—remains a lyrical tone-poem of a play.
But a caution for newcomers to it—as I cautioned my newcomer plus-one companion who found herself very glad of the heads up—despite obviously being a play about trading stories and the poetry of language creating atmosphere beyond the physical space of the set, The Weir can feel talkier than its remit. In the manner of Eugene O’Neill, it features certain verbal motifs repeated perhaps too often; a purposeful over-writing. Not does the play really “set up its permissions” properly. In fact , my first time through it—the Broadway presentation imported from London—had I not known in advance that the play would dramatize an exchange of ghost stories, I would have spent many distracted minutes trying to find my perceptual “point of entry.”
Now, of course, I’m used to The Weir. And fond of it. Arrive prepared to make a pact with its laconic pace, and open to very slow seduction…and you’ll likely leave fond of it too.