The Weir

In a rural village in the west of Ireland, a couple of locals – garage owner Jack (Peter Kowitz) and odd job man and carer for his dying Mammy, Jim (Robert Menzies) – go where they go every night, the little pub owned by young Brendan (Ian Meadows).  But tonight there’s some mild excitement: local-made-good estate agent, Finbar Mack (Greg Stone) is bringing Valerie (Nadine Garner), a newcomer to the village.  She’s come from Dublin – alone – and the word is, she’s attractive.  So there they are, three bachelors and a married charmer - and Valerie.  So the lads do their shy or try-hard best to welcome and entertain her and they have a few drinks and a few more and the evening slips into telling ghost stories.

Here we have sheer naturalism, right down to Dale Ferguson’s detailed, very realistic and just right pub interior, Matt Scott’s lights and Steve Francis’ sound design.  But in keeping with Conor McPherson’s preoccupations – even in this, his first (1997) big success – each character is burdened by their past or the awareness that they have no future.  The ‘ghost stories’ are not particularly scary – although when, finally, Valerie tells hers, it is deeply moving.  Everyone is suffused with melancholy, even successful Finbar.  Mr McPherson explores the way that these lonely characters know all about each other, but don’t push too hard into anyone’s sad secrets – or the way they learn about each other and connect when the social performances are washed away by the drink.  In those respects, the play is quintessentially Irish, but there isn’t much conflict and there’s no climax.  The play ends when Brendan turns out the lights and the pub is empty.

The cast is uniformly excellent and director Sam Strong’s unobtrusive, skilful mise en scene almost hides the fact that this situation has minimal development.  Robert Menzies’ shtick can be sheer melancholy, but here he is perfect and very touching as sad, humble, eager-to-please Jim, a performance that says, ‘excuse me, gents, for living – but, yes, I’ll have a small one’.  The sadness of Ian Meadows’ Brendan comes from our suspicion that this – the pub and summer tourists – are it for him.  He’s not going anywhere and the cliché of any spark between him and Valerie is totally avoided.  Nadine Garner nails the city newcomer-with-a-secret with lovely judgement.  At first Valerie is over-polite and over-bright, but she relaxes into the bumbling but genuine warmth of the men until finally she pours out her heartbreak.  A pitch perfect performance.  Greg Stone brings bluster and energy to likeable blowhard Finbar, who’s a big fish in a very small pond and knows it.  Peter Cowitz’ Jack is crusty and acerbic, pretending to authority like the man in charge - until he too sighs out his ever present regret over the biggest mistake he ever made – a far sadder tale than his ‘ghost story.’

An early influence on Mr McPherson was David Mamet, but there’s none of Mamet’s crackle, edge and hand-to-hand aggression here.  For those qualities, Mr McPherson’s The Seafarer (2006 – and presented in 2014 by Hoy Polloy at 45downstairs) is a better example – and a better play.  There, the conflicts are visceral and the past is menacing.  There can’t be such things in The Weir:  Jack, Jim, Brendan and maybe Valerie are all defeated, and Finbar wants no trouble.

The programme notes tell us that The Weir was commissioned by London’s Royal Court theatre, proved a hit in the upstairs space, ‘won all the major playwriting awards’, and transferred to the larger space downstairs before a long West End run.  Either tastes have changed since 1997 or maybe I am missing something, but I can’t help wondering why the MTC has assigned all this talent to this particular play.  The characters are clearly delineated and beautifully realised, there’s some humour and some sadness, but as it ends, you think, ‘Oh – that’s it?’  Yes, that’s it.

Michael Brindley

Images: Peter Kowitz, Nadine Garner, Ian Meadows, Greg Stone and Robert Menzies, & Greg Stone, Robert Menzies, Ian Meadows and Peter Kowitz. Photographer: Jeff Busby.