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The Weir.
Part of the 2004 Pitlochry Festival Theatre Summer Season for full details
about theatre and
reviews of the other shows in season
here.
Playwright - Conor McPherson.
Director - Richard Baron.
Set Designer - Trevor Coe.
Lighting Designer - Mark Pritchard.
Costume Design - Monica Nisbet.
Company - Pitlochry Theatre
Company .
Cast - here .
Venue - Pitlochry Theatre e-mail booking
01796 484626.
Dates and Times - here .
Run Time - 1hr 30 minutes. No interval.
Reviewer - Jan Natanson.
Create a magical piece of storytelling.
From the evocative smell of peat smoke even before we've fully crossed
the threshold into the auditorium , we know we're in Ireland. The set
and lighting invites the audience for this production to feel comfortably
at home in a shabby Irish country bar. All that's missing is a glass in
our own hands.
A run down place whose landlord never gets round to fixing things, it
is still a warm ,cosy haven in a bleak and lonely landscape. It draws
a regular band of locals, escaping their isolated lives on the depopulated
edge of Ireland for some company and talk. Brendan the publican is no
exception. The pub isn't so much a means of earning a living as his own
lifeline from loneliness.
The dialogue has a poetry that comes from authenticity and it can be
both very funny and moving at times. These Pitlochry company actors inhabit
the skins of the characters and we feel we get to know them intimately.
It's not not high drama, but unfolds at a gentle, unhurried pace, like
the best kinds of stories.
A stranger, Valerie, a recent incomer is visiting the bar for the first
time and her presence gives a dramatic impetus to the usual banter and
storytelling between the locals. The focus of the bar talk turns to the
past and encounters with the supernatural. This is not really surprising.
All of the characters, in their own ways are haunted by the past. The
district and, by extension, Ireland itself is a place full of ghosts and
haunted by its own history. Finbar the local boy made good, Jack a garage
owner and Jim a handyman all have their own stories to tell us. And Valerie
herself has her own tale to reveal.
This is a warm and poignant play in a fine ensemble production. Five
excellent performances by the actors create a magical piece of storytelling.
© Jan Natanson 4 August 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: Brendan -Guy Fearon, Jack- Martyn James,
Jim -Rory Murray, Finbar - Dougal Lee and
Valerie - Angela McGowan.
The Weir's Dates & times of Performances -
.
Opens 28 July 2004 at 8pm then *29 July at 2pm.
3 Aug at 8pm, 9 Aug at 8pm, 19 Aug at 8pm, 27 Aug at 8pm.
3 Sept at 8pm, *8 Sept at 8pm, *18 Sept at 8pm, *25 Sept at 2pm.
1 Oct at 8pm, 7 Oct at 8pm and last performance *13 Oct at 2pm.
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