About
the Play:
The Weir was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top
100 plays of the 20th century.
The first U.S. collection of an extraordinary voice in Irish
drama. This volume includes The Weir, St. Nicholas,
This Lime Tree Bower, The Good Thief, and Rum and
Vodka.
The Weir is a full-length drama by Conor McPherson.
In a bar in rural Ireland, the local men swap spooky stories in an
attempt to impress a young woman from Dublin who recently moved into
a nearby "haunted" house. However, the tables are soon
turned when she spins a yarn of her own. The Weir is a
spellbinding, beautifully observed hit from the master of suspenseful
realism.
The Weir is set in a small pub in a remote part of Ireland.
The local lads are swapping stories round the crackling fire of
Brendan's pub to while away the hours one stormy night. As the beer
and whisky flows, the arrival of a young stranger, haunted by a
secret from her past, turns the tales of folklore into something more
unsettling. It's clear that Valerie has something on her mind. She
has a tale to tell that'll stop them all dead in their tracks… A
shadowy tale delving into the dark corners of human lives, The
Weir is recognized as Conor McPherson's masterpiece;
combining superbly chilling tales of the supernatural with the
hilarious banter of a small community in the heart of rural Ireland.
(Premiered in 1997 at the Royal Court Theatre
at the Ambassadors
Theatre in London; Cast: 1 female, 4 male)
The other plays in this volume – three monologues and a
three-hander – were all written while Conor McPherson was in
his twenties.
St. Nicholas finds an aging jaded theatre critic recounting
a tale beginning with his obsession for a young actress, and how that
obsession leads to a journey into a macabre world of modern-day
vampires who offer him eternal life – his part of the bargain is to
feed their bloodlust. Is it all a drunken lie? A tantalizing fairy
tale? Or is it his own version of a higher truth? This hauntingly
funny one-man gothic ghost story winds its way through the fog of
memory towards a supernatural and suspenseful conclusion. (Premiered
in 1997 at Bush Theatre in London; Cast: 1 male)
In This Lime Tree Bower, three young men from a Dublin
seaside town tell their overlapping recollections of one fateful
night that included a rape, an embarrassing episode at a college
lecture, and a robbery done for retribution that ties it all
together. (Premiered in 1995 at Crypt Arts Centre in Dublin; Cast: 3
male)
In the sobering one-man play Rum and Vodka, a young
alcoholic recounts the events that follow after he loses his job –
from the feud with his wife to the bender that might finally help him
realize what's important in life. (Premiered in 1992 at University
College Dublin; Cast: 1 male)
The Good Thief is another one-man play wherein a small-time
thug reveals the remorse and regret he feels after a seemingly
routine job goes terribly wrong and leads to murder, kidnapping, and
finally a desperate run across Ireland, trying to stay one step ahead
of the police, that results in unfortunate casualties and
imprisonment. (Premiered in 1994 at City Arts Centre in Dublin; Cast:
1 male)
About the Playwright:
Conor McPherson is an Irish playwright and co-founder of
the Fly by Night Theatre Company. He has won numerous awards,
including a Laurence Olivier Award for The Weir and Tony Award
nominations for Shining City and The Seafarer.