Charles
Isherwood

July 9, 2015

The Irish Repertory Theater’s superb revival of “The Weir,” Conor McPherson’s haunting drama about strange occurrences and the comfort of sharing them with strangers, has returned for a summer run at the DR2 Theater, while the company’s home base undergoes renovation. The intimacy of the production, gracefully directed by Ciaran O’Reilly, is a signal asset; when first seen in New York in 1999, Mr. McPherson’s gentle tale about the thin membrane between life and death, and the living and the dead, was produced on Broadway, where its quietly shimmering beauty bewitched some and failed to impress others. In the cozy confines of a low-key Off Broadway theater, the play’s simplicity and subdued warmth may be easier to appreciate. Set in a small pub in a small Irish town, the play begins as a typical evening of teasing banter and gossip swapping among a few residents. Behind the bar is Brendan (Tim Ruddy), the proprietor of the pub, which is an appendage of his house on a family farm, part of which his sisters are urging him to sell. His first patron of the night is the older Jack (Paul O’Brien), a regular who owns a garage and plays the horses.