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Brendan Gleeson will make his West End debut this autumn in a revival of The Weir, directed for the first time by its playwright Conor McPherson.
Gleeson, whose films include The Banshees of Inisherin and Paddington 2, described McPherson’s play as “profoundly moving, inspiring and ultimately hopeful”. He will play one of the four men sharing stories in a remote Irish pub with a woman who has newly arrived in the area.
The Weir will run first at the Olympia theatre in Dublin from 8 August to 6 September and then at London’s Harold Pinter theatre from 12 September to 6 December. Gleeson performed at the Olympia theatre at the start of his career and his last stage appearance was in its 2015 production of the family drama The Walworth Face, appearing alongside his sons Domhnall and Brian. “I can’t wait to be back there, and then to play in the West End for the first time, at the beautiful Pinter theatre,” said Gleeson, who called The Weir “one of the rarest plays around”. Further casting is yet to be announced.
McPherson has a busy year ahead. His new play, The Brightening Air, has just opened at the Old Vic which is reviving the 2017 Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country, which he wrote and directed, this summer. In October, his adaptation of The Hunger Games, based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling 2008 novel and the 2012 film, will open at a new theatre in London’s Canary Wharf.
“I can hardly believe it’s 30 years since I wrote The Weir – and about 30 years since I first met the wonderful Brendan Gleeson,” said McPherson. “It’s an absolute honour to bring this play to life again with one of the great titans of Irish acting.” The Weir’s co-producer Kate Horton described it as “a beautiful play about human connection, the endurance of hope and the essential power of storytelling”.
The Weir was staged at the small upstairs theatre at the Royal Court in London in 1997, with Jim Norton – a McPherson regular – in the role of local garage owner Jack, the part Gleeson will now play. Reviewing the 1997 production, Michael Billington called The Weir “a spellbinder that transfixes you like the Ancient Mariner’s tale”. McPherson’s play, he wrote, “is much more than a series of hair-raising ghost stories. It offers, in a little over 90 minutes, an extraordinarily rich picture of Irish rural life.” That production moved downstairs to the main Royal Court stage in 1998. The play was revived at the Donmar Warehouse in 2013 with a cast including Brian Cox as Jack.
