James Lancaster, Tony Ward and Kirsten Potter in The Weir.

Haunting Tales on a Windy Night

by Kimberly Colburn

Conor McPherson’s The Weir opens on a blustery evening in rural Ireland. Some old friends have gathered at their local watering hole. The characters populating the bar include the bartender, Brendan, who serves up the beer and whiskey. Jack is an older man who is terminally single. Jim is stuck in town, doing his duty by caring for his sick mother. Finbar, who is riding the success of his father’s coattails, has come back around and brought a newcomer—in a town that doesn’t often have them—Valerie.

The men boast and banter amidst the drinks, in part to impress the lady suddenly in their vicinity. Finbar brings up an old legend about a fairy road, urging Jack to tell the tale. What starts as an innocent recounting of local lore turns into an entire evening of tales of the supernatural. Each tale touches on the unexplainable, even as the men try to explain it away as only being “old cod” (Irish slang for a story or hoax).

Literally, a weir is a boundary on a river, controlling and measuring the flow of the water, and it often creates a dam-like whirlpool between the tranquil stream and the agitated breakers. The yarns spun in the play also straddle a boundary—between reality and the paranormal. Ireland is known for its rich folklore and history, and this play honors some of these traditions. In an interview, McPherson said, “I have a theory about Ireland, being at the edge of Europe. For 1,000 years, people didn't know what was beyond. But we thought about it—a lot. And that ‘beyond’ became internalized in our psyche. And then Catholicism took hold—and it was a superstitious religion with ghostly imagery. There's something in our culture that makes us connect with that.”

Playwright Conor McPherson.

McPherson grew up in Dublin, but would often travel alone to visit his grandfather in Leitrim county, the isolated area of Ireland The Weir takes place in. The setting proved inspirational. Reflecting on The Weir, McPherson wrote: “I remembered sitting with my granddad, Jack, in his little house outside Jamestown where he lived alone. Smoking, tipping ash into the fire, drinking bottled stout from a six-pack. And a world, half imagined, half rooted in reality, just about visible to me in the dark. A world of lost afternoons in suburban and rural bars. Of closing your eyes in the dim light, with a community who couldn’t or wouldn’t judge you.”

The Weir first opened in London at the Royal Court in 1997. It won the Lawrence Olivier Award as the “Best New Play” and McPherson was quickly hailed as a strong new voice in Irish playwriting, receiving the Critics' Circle Award as the most promising playwright. The Weir went on to a successful eigh-month run on Broadway in 1999, and has been produced around the world. In the years since, he has penned many more successful plays, including Shining City, Port Authority and The Seafarer.

Clockwise from top left, Tony Ward, director Warner Shook, Daniel Reichert, James Lancaster, Kirsten Potter and Richard Doyle.

Meet the Cast

Director Warner Shook (fresh from his success with last year’s hit Crimes of the Heart) is working with a cast that includes Richard Doyle, James Lancaster, Daniel Reichert, Tony Ward and Kirsten Potter.

SCR Founding Artist Richard Doyle plays Jack. He’s been busy, doing double duty the first week of rehearsals—rehearsing The Weir during the day and performing as Robin Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the evenings, but says it is worth it. “I've been looking forward to this for months,” he said, “It’s a great piece and I’ve always wanted a chance to do this play.”

Kirsten Potter returns to SCR to play Valerie after her turn earlier this season as Lina Szczepanowska in Misalliance. The rest of the cast has been seen on SCR stages, too—Tony Ward was last seen in Vesuvius (2005) and Terra Nova (2003), Daniel Reichert was in Arms and the Man (1996), and James Lancaster was in Dancing at Lughnasa (1994) and The Caretaker (1991).

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