Last Thursday evening we went to see "The Weir" -at the Wyndham Theatre. Impressive performances from the well known cast, although the content required a great deal of concentration - here is the summary….
Conor McPherson’s critically acclaimed play opens at the Wyndhams theatre on 16th January and plays for a strictly limited season until the 19th April 2014.
The Weir was first produced in 1997 at The Royal Court and earlier this year enjoyed a sell out season at the Donamar Warehouse with an impressive cast list including Risteárd Cooper, Brian Cox, Dervla Kirwan, Peter MacDonald and Ardal O'Hanlon
The play opens in Brendan’s bar, an isolated rural Irish pub, where the men gather for their daily pint. Brendan along with Jack and Jim discuss Valerie, a pretty young woman who has arrived in their midst from Dublin.
Valerie arrives at the bar with Finbar, a local businessman. The men reminisce and regal her with stories, trying to impress her with supernatural tales of souls past and of spirits very much present. But Valerie’s story is more chilling and more real than any of the men could have foreseen.
The play is typically bitter-sweet, and on its première in 1997, The Weir won the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Olivier Awards for Best New Play, and established McPherson’s place as one of our greatest living playwrights.
The Weir has become an undoubted modern classic and with this fantastic cast it is a must-see play.
We did enjoy it - however we were troubled by a woman directly behind us, probably in her early 40s who fell asleep more or less from the start and snored so loudly I had to turn round and nudge her…..this seemed to do the trick …….
The impressive cast were so recognisable……..I kept thinking of TV productions in which the individual actors starred like "BallyKissAngels", "The Bourne Identity" (I think Brian Cox was in this one or another Bourne :)) and the much missed "Father Ted"
However the most intriguing part of the evening occurred at our pre- theatre meal. I noticed a group of people opposite us and in particular a woman who had her back to us. I know it sounds strange but even from the back this woman seemed so familiar particularly her hair. Eventually I could see her face and I know I have mentioned similar things before…..but it is getting really scary…. but here was a woman who we haven't seen for about 10 years, we exchange Christmas cards and keep trying to meet up. As she now lives in Devon it has always been difficult to make this happen. By coincidence she had some consultancy work in London and met up with friends who shared her birthday. We were all delighted to see each other and had hugs all round. What struck me about her is that she had just celebrated her 70th birthday -( I must confess I thought she was much younger!) but she was so bright, bubbly and full of life and still doing work on an ad hoc basis. For as long as we have know her she has always been hungry for the next project and making it happen. How refreshing in this day and age…..truly an inspiration. We parted company with the same promises of meeting up and this time we are going to make it happen……………..
http://www.fromtheboxoffice.com/detail/2BPU/London/Wyndham_s_Theatre/The_Weir
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