THE WEIR

It's easy to see why The Weir was recently voted a place in the Royal National Theatre's Survey of the Twentieth-Century Most Significant Plays. The original London production won the 1997 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award for its author, Conor McPherson, along with an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance for Brendan Coyle. The Weir is a darkly magical, lyrical little play with no plot to speak of beyond the transforming effects of the spoken word. Many spoken words to be specific, along with notable moments when the characters simply stare into the future or pause to listen to the wind blowing outside the shabby tavern in remote North-West Ireland in which, for an hour and a half, a small group of people meet and tell stories. At first it's just small talk among the men involving little more than the windy weather and a broken tractor. The gossip quickly turns to the subject of Finbar, who has sold a house to a woman named Valerie. When the pair arrives at the bar a few moments later, we begin to see glimpses of sexual interest and rivalry among the men. Each in turn tells a story; tales that, as the evening progresses, become deep, rich, eloquent and revealing. Small mysteries evolve into eerie astonishments and braggadocio soars into liberating confessions of love, loss, and loneliness. We sense we are being given a brief glimpse of the soul of an old, repressed Ireland as personified by these characters, and it's a profoundly emotional experience. OPENING NIGHT SPECIAL - 9th May - Entry only $5