Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Irish Rep’s revival of THE WEIR transcends the Zoom treatment

• By drediman
• July 23, 2020
• No Comments

Amanda Quaid in Irish Rep’s Zoom revival of “The Weir” by Conor McPherson.

Yesterday, I livestreamed Conor McPherson’s The Weir, courtesy of Off-Broadway’s Irish Repertory Theatre. Seeing the 1997 play for the first time was one of the eye-opening experiences of my formative theatergoing years, cementing my deep appreciation of the act of storytelling vis-à-vis theater. I first crossed paths with Mr. McPherson’s career-making play in 1999 in London’s West End, shortly after it premiered at the Royal Court. Despite the passing of more than two decades, I still consider it the gold standard of late twentieth century Irish playwriting and a transcendent expression of what it is to be human. The Weir tells the deceptively simple story of four men and a newcomer (the sole woman) who casually gather at a remote bar in the Irish countryside. Over the course of a few rounds, they get to sharing increasingly involved ghost stories.

The Chelsea-based Irish Rep rightly had a big success on its hands when it staged the play in 2013 (the production enjoyed an encore run at the DR2 Theatre in 2015). It’s this excellent cast that has reunited for the current weeklong run via the Internet. Although nothing can replace the experience of encountering these chilling yet profoundly personal yarns with fellow audience members in a communal space, The Weir is an excellent candidate for the “performance on screen” (which this livestream has dubbed itself) treatment. Indeed, with its tendency towards immersive, atmospheric storytelling, the play lends itself wonderfully to the convenient but often restrictive Zoom approach to “staging”. Additionally, the one-character-per-frame format is an apt visual representation of the characters’ existential bouts with loneliness and loss.

Director Ciarán O’Reilly clearly knows the play intimately, which is apparent in his intuitive story-boarding (kudos also to his technical and design teams for resourcefully realizing his vision). The same can be said of his actors – the very fine Dan Butler (Jack), Sean Gormley (Finbar), John Keating (Jim), Tim Ruddy (Brendan), and Amanda Quaid (Valerie) – who manage to navigate the contours of this unfamiliar hybrid medium with impressive ease. The supple naturalism of their performances – which veers between wickedly funny and deeply reflective – is the hook that draws us into the worlds within worlds of the play. If anything, their performances have only grown in poignancy during our isolated times (particularly Mr. Butler as Jack and Mr. Keating as Jim). Lastly, the fact that The Weir is streamed and performed live without the option of accessing it at a later time is a potent and welcome reminder of theatergoing’s innate ephemerality.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE WEIR
Streaming Theater
Irish Repertory Theatre
1 hour, 50 minutes
Through July 25 (advance reservations are required)