“The Weir” takes place in Paddy Byrne’s Pub in a rural Irish town, where the locals are exchanging weird, spooky, and humorous stories. It can be they are trying to impress Valerie, a newcomer in town, brought to the bar by their friend, Finbar, but I am sure they come regularly here to meet, drink, and tell stories.
In this award-winning play by Conor McPherson, first staged in 1997, the owner of the pub, Brendan (Aiden McDonald), listens as three regulars, Jack, Jim, and Finbar tell stories to Valerie. They are ghost stories. They are horror stories. It is not a play with much action, but rather some long, fascinating monologues about people, about cemeteries, and about life as they down their drinks. Ironically, when asked what she would like to drink, she says “white wine.” They have no wine, but Brendan manages to locate an old bottle in his house that is attached to the pub.
The first to arrive at the pub is Jack (Brian Rock) and he engages Brendan with background story that I am sad to say, I missed. He was talking so fast with the Irish brogue that I didn’t understand half of what he was saying. I know that they were trying to recreate an intimate scene in a friendly space, but the Plays and Players Theater’s ceiling is about 30 feet high and much gets lost if an actor doesn’t project louder than just a natural speaking voice. I have seen many plays at this venue with no difficulty, but Jack’s talking might as well have been in another language. Probably the rehearsals took place in a smaller space where the director was closer to the actors, and they could speak in softer tones. When I struggle to understand what is going on in a play with just story-telling and no action, if I don’t succeed, I zone out. And many of the other characters also spoke quickly. The acting was more about the accent than about the substance. I had the same problem with Jim (Oliver Donahue).
When Finbar (Robert Hargraves) arrives with Valerie (Kirsten Quinn), things become a bit clearer. They speak more slowly and with less of an accent. And when he launches into his lengthy ghost story about an eerie woman appearing on the stairs of a house who stares at the occupants and a neighbor seeing a dead person in the garden, I followed most, but not all, of his strange narrative. Valerie listens attentively, then shares her own story. It is not filled with supernatural or magical events like the men’s stories. Rather, it is a most sad telling of her own recent life. The mood changes.
The story is a powerful one and I suggest that if you go, grab a seat close to the stage so you catch all the words. I found that in my seat in the sixth row, that those seated closer to the stage laughed at jokes that those behind me didn’t respond to. And I do wish that Director Peggy Mecham managed to pull more from the actors emotionally.
“The Weir” by Conor McPherson at The Irish Heritage Theatre being performed at Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., Philadelphia, PA 19103, 215-680-3876
www. irishheritagetheatre.org Thru March 29, 2026
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 