The Weir at the Harold Pinter Theatre – Review

Last Updated on September 24, 2025

Brendan Gleeson stars in a subdued but delightful play about rural Ireland.

If you are looking for high drama, The Weir is not for you. But in the absence of an elaborate plot, Conor McPherson creates tension from a subtle glance or a casual misspeak, intimacy from an extended silence or the brush of a hand. It does not shock, but it is full of intrigue, mystery and wit.

Set in a pub in rural northwest Ireland, four local men and a woman, new to the area, drink and chat. They continue to chat for an uninterrupted one hour and forty minutes, telling long-winded stories of unsettling Irish folklore, each tale subtly revealing something of their own troubled pasts.

The acting in The Weir is naturalistic, charming and unhurried. When one starts to tell a story of the town’s haunted history, the rest listen attentively. Occasionally, they hit a nerve, and they argue. But no hands are thrown. They are all lonely in their own ways – some heartbroken, some grieving, all in some sense on the fringes of the world. While nothing much happens, small things take on great significance. After a moment of vulnerability, a handshake or a hug becomes a moment of extreme tenderness. Silences becomes heavy with emotion.

The writing is excellent, but The Weir lives and dies on the strength of its cast. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a pub with boring strangers. Fortunately, each is individually charismatic, and together they create a winding conversation that it feels a privilege to witness.

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) is magnetic as Jack, a middle-aged man who blew his one chance at love many years ago by refusing to swap his small town for the big city. Now he spends his days working and drinking. Owen McDonnell (The Ferryman) is the quieter and younger barkeeper, Jim, constantly “debating” whether to have another drink. By the end, it is remarkable how intimately one feels that one understands Jim despite how little of himself is revealed; it is in how he relates to the others that one understands his place in the society that they have formed. Séan McGinley is the older Jim, his awkwardness and smart comic timing bring uproarious laughter. Tom Vaughan-Taylor (Dancing at Lughnasa) is the manic Finbar, returning to the pub from the bigger town nearby, bouncing off the walls and flaunting his cash. He adds a necessary energy to the bar that nervously skirts around the edges of insufferable for his company. But he is, at heart, a local lad like the rest.

These are lonely men, rueful more than embittered. They are waiting for something, but they are not hopeful for its arrival, and they will not despair if it doesn’t come. For now, an evening exchanging stories in the pub is enough.

Finally, Kate Phillips (Wolf Hall) is Valerie, a new woman in town and therefore the cause of much excitement. Is she what these men have been waiting for? It is her existence in the all-male environment that brightens up what might have been another dull night at the bar, and it is her emotional monologue that forms the centre of The Weir – a tragic personal story of grief that stuns the loquacious men into silence. Nothing changes afterwards – not really – but in the change of the atmosphere, they become closer as a group.

There is a moment in which Jack is taking his time telling a story, in no rush to get through the set-up. He pauses and says to Valerie, “Am I setting the tone for you?” There is a knowing laugh from the audience – this is a play in which the atmosphere matters as much as the substance, where the way the actors occupy the space matters as much as the words they say.

Is it enough for the audience? It is funny, engaging and just the right length. The characters are rich and the dynamics between them are real. In short, The Weir is like witnessing an extraordinary evening at the pub. Who doesn’t want to be a part of that?

The Weir at the Harold Pinter Theatre runs until 6th December 2025.

Harold Pinter Theatre
Panton Street,
London SW1Y 4DN

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