Modern classic returns in triumph and Brendan Gleeson makes an impressive West End debut

Harold Pinter Theatre

In the thirty years since its Royal Court debut, Conor McPherson’s first play The Weir has become a modern classic. Deceptively simple, it describes an evening in an Irish bar where a handful of male regulars tell spooky tales to impress a female newcomer, in the course of which much is revealed about their dreams and disappointments. The latest revival is directed by the author himself with, said the critics, much sensitivity. The great actor Brendan Gleeson makes his West End debut and received huge praise for his performance. The original production’s designer Rae Smith has returned to provide another impressive (said the reviewers) naturalistic set.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ★★★★★

Chris Wiegand in The Guardian was pleased to see The Weir return. He called it ‘a revival of such exactness it appears effortless’… ‘it’s an endlessly rewarding evening that proves McPherson’s play is built to last.’

Holly O’Mahony of LondonTheatre opined: ‘this production, almost 30 years on, is quite perfect’.

Brendan Gleeson was the centre of attention of the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish: ‘He’s the craggy-faced poster-boy for Conor McPherson’s spellbinding, atmospheric revival (of) the Dublin playwright’s early masterpiece of laughter, grief and supernatural anecdotage in a rural Sligo bar.’ He called the play: ‘a drama of breathtaking craft, tilting line by line between levity and profundity, the far-fetched and the truth, superstition and faith’.

WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton declared: ‘What a great play Conor McPherson’s The Weir is. It seems so simple, five people gathered in a pub on a winter’s night, telling each other stories. Yet within that frame, McPherson weaves words with such care and precision that it never loses its tautness.’ She called it ‘a staggeringly good production of a play that is already a classic’.

The Mail’s Patrick Marmion noted: ‘it’s impressive how The Weir has stood the test of time. It catches an Ireland on the cusp of change, haunted by a mythic and painful past. But the warmth of the laughter that rolls off the audience is remarkable. And what better actor to pop the cork on such intoxicating liquor than the inscrutable, bearlike Gleeson?’

4 stars ★★★★

The Times’ Clive Davis was sceptical about just how good the play is ‘But an accomplished group of actors can find depths in glances and silences. Whether or not The Weir…really is an all-time classic, as many insist it is, this production, directed by McPherson, is worth catching to see Brendan Gleeson give a display that is as unyielding and enigmatic as a neolithic rock carving.’

David Nice for The Arts Desk thought: ‘This new staging of a long-running hit, directed…by the playwright, sustains the atmosphere of curious meetings in a rural Irish pub saloon (perfectly designed by Rae Smith) all the way through to the quiet coda’.

The Independent’s Alice Saville commented: ‘its carefully interwoven strands of the mundane and the supernatural give this play an enduring strength’.

BroadwayWorld’s Alexander Cohen explained: ‘What makes it magnetic is not the ghost stories themselves, but the way they open windows into the souls of those telling them. Beneath the spookiness lies something far more human: grief, regret and endless longing.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis found: ‘The Weir retains its power to beguile and unnerve. It also proves a splendid vehicle for the mighty presence of Brendan Gleeson‘.

3 stars ★★★

Chris Omaweng at LondonTheatre1 was left cold: ‘Some interesting and mildly amusing stories helped to maintain interest, but I was never deeply invested in proceedings.’ He explained: ‘Something atmospheric appears to be lost by presenting this play in a West End proscenium arch playhouse, a distancing effect, if you will, that would not have been there in a studio space.’

Critics’ average rating 4.4★

Value rating 49 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

The Weir can be seen at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 6 Dec 2025. Buy tickets direct from theweirplay.com

If you’ve seen The Weir at Harold Pinter Theatre, please leave your rating and review below