Berkshire Theatre Group, Stockbridge, MA
through October 27, 2024
by Janice Webb
Photo by David Dashiell |
As the actors step on the stage and start their lilting, musical dialogue I felt safe and at home,
just as the characters of "The Wier" portray in their theatre home. The story, actually several stories, take place in a neighborhood pub in Carrig, County Tipperary, Ireland. Each patron has their own history shaped by families and past decisions. These five people are not best friends, but individuals that make the whole.
just as the characters of "The Wier" portray in their theatre home. The story, actually several stories, take place in a neighborhood pub in Carrig, County Tipperary, Ireland. Each patron has their own history shaped by families and past decisions. These five people are not best friends, but individuals that make the whole.
The play opens with Jack (Sean Bridgers), the patron pouring a Guiness -- well, trying to as the pump is broken, and he must resort to a bottle of beer. He is followed by Brendan the barkeep (Philip Themio Stoddard). The order of personalities onset seems a bit backwards, that a patron would be the first in the pub, but it is remote interior Ireland and that's how it starts and that's how it is.
Enters the shy "scientific" Jim (Joey Collins), Finbar the gregarious realtor (Harry Smith), and newcomer from Dublin, Valerie (Stephanie Jean Lane). Each actor is superb in roles that they make human.
What follows is an evening of stories of ghostly nights passed, graves dug, fairy roads discovered, and apparitions seen; a bit unsettling, but a good play for October with Halloween approaching.
In between the stories swapped, the audience sees what our current world is missing: the lost art of a tale well told, shared between neighbors, a sense of community, a night among friends.
Director Eric Hill has positioned actors in each character's place in this tiny world; on the old tavern's floor in chairs where none match. At other times, it is clear that Hill has lined up this night's pub patrons, made ready for one tale ascending to another with Jack's emotionally powerful narrative at the last.
The plot and characters create a look back in time before everyone was glued to their cell phones, where neighbors helped each other even if you didn't always agree with each other. In sharing anecdotes, they also learn a little more about themselves.
With an Irish brogue, the actors could have been reading the Dublin phonebook and I may have been happy for a bit. However, it was clear by the instant standing ovation, that the tales told were engrossing and truthful of the various human conditions as we pass through life.
At the play's end, I asked myself, are there ghosts and fairies living with us and what would we do if they appeared?
Note: Because our latest writer, Janice Webb, comes with a heritage as Irish as can be and has visited the "old country" several times, In the Spotlight asked for a review from her perspective.