BRENDAN GLESSON proves a bar stool king in the much-anticipated revival of Conor McPeherson’s The Weir.
Directed by the playwright himself, the play recently opened at the Harold Pinter theatre in London’s West End.
And it is bulging with stellar performances by excellent actors, who more than do this equally impressive script justice.
First written and performed in 1997, the play is entirely set in a country pub in what could be rural Leitrim or Sligo.
McPherson introduces a selection of local characters and sets about telling their stories in the way you might expect in an Irish pub.
Pictured Seán McGinley, Kate Phillips, Brendan Gleeson, Owen McDonnell and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor star in Conor McPherson's The Weir at the Harold Pinter TheatreTales are told, truths are exposed and at times emotions run high in this charming exploration of the lives and losses of those we have met.
Gleeson, in his West End debut, leads proceedings as Jack, an older man who works as a mechanic and who never married.
With his slicked back hair, bulging waistline and worn black suit, he is so well cast, and his performance so polished, that you nearly can’t imagine anyone ever playing this role so well – although of course there have been many more who have done so over the years.
Brendan Gleeson commands the stage in The Weir
But here in London, Gleeson leads the production with such force and believability, that you quickly settle in for a night at the bar.
He is ably supported by fellow cast mates too, which include Seán McGinley as the relatively quiet peacemaker Jim, who dedicates his time to his ailing elderly mother, Owen McDonnell as the bachelor bar owner Brendan and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as the married local businessman Finbar.
Owen McDonnell in Conor McPherson's The WeirKate Phillips enters the scene as the newly arrived “blow-in” Valerie, whose moving to the area from Dublin has thrown the cats entirely among the pigeons on what would otherwise be a night in the pub like any other.
It is Finbar’s decision to give Valerie a tour of the town which brings her into the lives of the men in the bar, who subtly try to impress her, but eventually become way more interested in protecting and helping her heal from the family trauma she soon reveals herself to be using her newfound home to hide away from.
But Valerie is not the only one with hidden hurts, nor unexplained experiences too, and soon the story swapping that is undeniably the best stuff of a night in the pub reveals some synergy between them all.
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor plays local businessman FinbarWhether you believe in ghost stories, or fairies, or none of the above, you will find it hard not to get sucked into the somewhat unnerving suggestions carried in McPherson’s work.
Because even now, nearly 30 years after he first wrote it, his play still holds solid ground.
These characters still exist in pubs across Ireland; you can see them propping up the bar telling their stories and exchanging banter and light insults before washing it all down with a handshake and a whiskey chaser – or a ‘small one’ to have it right.
For those of us not close enough to pop in for a pint, The Weir offers the chance of enjoy that atmosphere, the laughs and the tears, for ourselves.
Don’t miss the chance to see it while it is in town.
The Weir runs at the Harold Pinter Theatre until December 6. Click here for more information. theweirplay.com.
