REVIEW: The Weir at the Everyman Theatre
'A captivating evening of theatre'.
A man walks into a pub, pours himself a pint (or tries to) and the scene is set.
Time to pull up a pew and spend an evening in a rural Irish pub in the days when the local pub was a hub of the community and lonely people could share the company of others over a drink and a cigarette. The Weir, written by Connor McPherson 20 years ago has become established as a modern classic and is brought to the Cheltenham stage by the English Touring Theatre.
Jim, a fellow local, joins pub regular Jack at the bar. Under the rather lax supervision of Brendan the landlord the drink flows and subsequently the banter between them. There is talk of a new arrival in the community, Valerie a young woman from Dublin who shortly arrives in the pub escorted by local businessman Finbar. The drink continues to flow and the men begin to tell stories of mysterious events that they have experienced. The audience is left to make up their own mind as to whether their tales are real or products of their lonely imaginations. They listen to each other and over the course of the evening their persona becomes more caring towards each other, which in turn leads the new arrival Valerie to share her own sad story with them.
The whole audience was captivated as each character delivered their moving stories to the group and enjoying the sometimes amusing reactions between the different personalities. The set was designed to actually make the audience feel as if they were in the pub listening to the chilling tales. We certainly felt as if we were in Brendan’s bar. It was an atmosphere which so many audience members would recognise, as we all love a good yarn - the eerier the better!
In conclusion we would like to thank Jack (Sean Murray), Jim (John O'Dowd), Brendan (Sam O'Mahony), Finbar (Louis Dempsey) and Valerie (Natalie Radmall-Quirke) for their company and compelling stories. We are sorry that we won’t be able to join them for another evening, but you may well be able to as The Weir runs until Saturday 30 September.
Explore Gloucestershire
27 September 2017
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