Brendan Gleeson is to act on stage for the first time in a decade in Dublin this August, in a new production of The Weir, the play written – and now, for the first time, directed – by Conor McPherson.
After its four-week run at the 3Olympia Theatre ends, on September 6th, the show, which is being staged by Landmark Productions and Kate Horton Productions, will transfer to London for a 12-week run that will be Gleeson’s West End debut.
The actor, who describes The Weir as profoundly moving, inspiring and ultimately hopeful – “one of the rarest plays around” – began acting in theatre but is now better known for his screen performances, from In Bruges to his Oscar-, Bafta- and Golden Globe-nominated role in The Banshees of Inisherin.
“The last time I appeared on stage was 10 years ago, at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, where I started my career. 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.”
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That Olympia production, also staged by Landmark, was of Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce, in 2015. Gleeson appeared in it with his sons Brian and Domhnall.
McPherson’s 1997 play, which is set over an evening in a rural pub in Co Leitrim, sees the regulars interrupted by a young woman recently arrived from Dublin. They share stories with her – about folklore, ghosts and fairies – and she tells her own melancholy tale.
The Weir won an Oliver Award for best new play after premiering at the Royal Court in London; it opened on Broadway in 1999. It has since been performed all over the world, including at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2022. “It’s an absolute honour to bring this play to life again with one of the great titans of Irish acting,” McPherson says.
The writer’s new play, The Brightening Air, has just opened in London, with a predominantly Irish cast, to strong reviews.
Anne Clarke of Landmark, one of Ireland’s leading theatre producers, says she got involved after Horton called to say that she had been “working with McPherson on a new production of The Weir” and that “Brendan Gleeson had agreed to play Jack. They were hoping the production would open in Dublin, ahead of a West End run. I had been lucky enough to work with Brendan before.” The thought of working with him “on Conor’s sublime play was a thrill”.
Horton, a producer of more than 100 world premieres, with awards that include a Pulitzer, Tony and Olivier, says she was “spellbound” at the premiere of McPherson’s play and couldn’t have wished for more for the writer “to agree to direct his own masterpiece for the first time” and “for the magnificent Brendan Gleeson to agree to lead the cast”.
Tickets for the Irish run go on sale on Saturday, May 3rd.
