"The Weir" by Conor McPherson
Nottingham Lace Market Theatre

"The Weir" is a haunting play with its roots deeply set in Irish folklore.

It is set in a small bar called The Weir established within a house on a farm, in a rural town called County Lietrim in the north of Ireland. Three local men are settling down for the night, enjoying good beer and company. Their normal routine is shaken up when their friend Finbar enters the bar and introduces them to Valerie, an attractive woman from Dublin who has just moved into an old house in the town. As the night progresses, each local from the bar starts to tell a tale of eerie happenings in the town. What starts as innocent banter between the men turns into a real fright when Valerie reveals a real, haunted tale of her own from the past.

Finbar and Jim leave the pub, and in the last part of the play, Jack's final monologue is a story of personal loss which, he comments, is at least not a ghostly tale but is nonetheless about a haunting of sorts. Because the stormy weather outside has not subsided, Brendan offers to run Valerie and Jack home, and then something occurs in the pub that could be an echo from one of the stories...

John Parker (Jack), Daniel Bogod (Brendan), the publican, Trev Clarke (Jim), Shaun Harper (Finbar) who has rented the house to Valerie and Michelle Smith (Valerie) tells why she left Dublin. Valerie's story is melancholy with a ghostly twist which echoes the earlier tales, and visibly shock the men who become softer, kinder, and the banter quickly ebbs away.

An excellent cast who deliver believable Irish accents and can keep you transfixed just by talking. Well, that's how the writer, Conor McPherson, describes the play, "just people talking" but telling stories that keep you hanging on to the orators every syllable is a skill that not everyone owns.

Setting this play in The Studio, upstairs at the Lace Market Theatre, creates that intimate atmosphere that would have been lost on a larger stage, and especially with the dimming of the lights and the stormy soundscape from outside the pub's door. And I will admit during the retelling of these tales made the hairs on my neck and arms stand up.

Directed by Nik Hedges, he made us feel that we were sat in a cosy pub, complete with a glowing stove and working bar, well working if you like Harp Lager as opposed to Guinness. We were flies on the wall witnessing these supernatural tinged tales, along the way discovering the characters back stories. You could feel the air of tension within this production. I am also so pleased that the play was performed straight through, without an interval, because that kept the suspense levels on a high

Keith Parkinson's set will make you feel like you are sitting in a small pub.

Philip Hogarth's Lighting Design honed in on the intimacy of the stories by dimming the lights, making us zone into these stories. I'm not sure why, but whenever the lights dimmed, I leant forward and sat back in my seat when the light levels went back to normal. Isn't it strange how you react to something like that?

The Sound Design by Matthew Allcock actually left me feeling cold. I'll explain that as it's a compliment. It's Ireland where the weather around this village is windy and wet, and from the very start of the play, the soundscape was a whipping and howling wind that ebbed and flowed; throw in a short rain shower and this constant effect actually made you feel cold, your senses telling you that what you were hearing should make you pull your coat just a little closer. Included within this wet and windy soundscape are other sounds that complement the story telling, but oh so subtle are these.

Be prepared to be vacuumed into the lives of these people and to feel just a tad uneasy, because this is the aim of the Director and the cast, and their aim struck a direct hit with me, and when you get home, if you hear knocking at your front or back door...

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