Review: The Weir Returns for Another Haunting Run at Irish Repertory Theatre

Five people gather in a bar in rural Ireland and swap stories. That’s the set-up of Conor McPherson’s 1997 play The Weir. On the surface, it sounds simple, but McPherson’s insights into human experience and his atmospheric and character details have earned the play the status of a modern classic. At the very least, Irish Repertory Theatre’s revival of director Ciarán O’Reilly’s 2013 production, featuring three of its original cast members, offers a new generation of theatergoers an opportunity to assess the play and judge whether it deserves that reputation.

Sound designer Drew Levy sets a brooding tone at the outset with wind blowing outside of scenic designer Charlie Corcoran’s handsomely appointed pub along with Michael Gottlieb’s evocative lighting design. For mechanic Jack (Dan Butler) and his assistant Jim (John Keating), it’s just another night of drinking and commiserating at the pub, owned by Brendan (Johnny Hopkins, new to this production). There’s a bit more intrigue than usual on this night, however, as Jim has heard that their real-estate businessman friend Finbar, (Sean Gormley), will be bringing his latest client, a Dubliner named Valerie (Sarah Street, also new to this production), who has rented the old house of the late Maura Nealon, a former bar regular.

The Nealon house has a reputation of being haunted, causing Jack, Jim, and Finbar to start telling Valerie stories with a supernatural slant. Jack recounts a tale involving Maura’s mother, Bridie, and a ghostly visitation. Finbar’s tale revolves around a former neighbor who asked him for help after her daughter claimed she saw a spirit. Jim offers a more personal story of a man he glimpsed in a graveyard whom he later sees in a newspaper as having died before his appearance. As spooky as their stories are, none come within spitting distance of the tragic tale Valerie tells about the possible beyond-the-grave phone call she receives.

The title of the play refers to a hydroelectric dam glimpsed in a photograph taken in 1951 and featuring Brendan’s father. Though the weir doesn’t figure into any of the stories, it does evoke a sense of time standing still in a town seemingly untouched by modernity. Unlike Finbar, neither Jack nor Jim has ever left this town, and Brendan is merely continuing his family’s legacy by holding on to this bar. A final anecdote Jack offers—markedly unsupernatural in nature, but nevertheless poignantly indicative of a more mundane sort of haunting—suggests a quiet desperation belying the surface bluster.

Much of the deeper resonance of The Weir becomes apparent only upon further reflection, long after the incidental details and gut-punch shocks have died away. In the moment, though, one might wonder whether the stories are distinctive enough to bear the weight of the broader vision of working-class life McPherson aims to articulate. On the other hand, the colorful tales themselves don’t necessarily matter as much as what they collectively represent: a way for characters to either escape or confront their individual realities.

An excellent cast, beautifully directed by O’Reilly, helps bring us into this world. Two subtle directorial gestures highlight the care O’Reilly has brought to this production: Street’s unsettled reaction to Jim’s story just before she eventually tells her own, and Hopkins’s reaction to Valerie’s story, visibly moved enough to motivate Brendan’s own defensive outburst after she’s done. Neither reaction is in McPherson’s script, which suggests just how deeply O’Reilly has thought about this material.

Butler, Keating, and Gormley have appeared in previous incarnations of this production, but there’s no sense of routine to their performances. Keating is especially gripping during his showcase storytelling moment, as is Butler in his rueful concluding monologue. But Street is particularly moving in the way she delivers Valerie’s big monologue with a palpable wounded dignity. Whatever you think of the ghost stories themselves, this revival of The Weir certainly has terrific storytellers on hand to keep you riveted throughout.