Brendan Gleeson has won universal praise for delivering a ‘pitch perfect’ performance in a new West End revival of Conor McPherson’s well travelled play, The Weir.
The Irish star plays nostalgic car mechanic and garage owner Jack, one of five characters whose hazy reminiscences intertwine over drinks in a County Leitrim pub.
For those in the know, it’s familiar ground; this latest revival at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre is its thirteenth since opening to a significantly smaller audience at Royal Court Theatre in 1997.
But for all its history, The Weir marks something of a first for the veteran Gleeson, who at 70 and long-established as one of Ireland’s pre-eminent acting talents, breaks his West End duck in this new production.
And he would be forgiven for wondering what took him so long after winning consistently positive reviews for his first stage appearance in more than a decade.
Of Gleeson’s stage presence, the Daily Mail’s Patrick Marmion writes: ‘He’s a rural colossus of yore, white shirt barely encompassing his girth, inside a subsiding black suit that was once an Irish standard.
Brendan Gleeson has won universal praise for delivering a ‘pitch perfect’ performance in a new West End revival of Conor McPherson’s well travelled play, The Weir
The Irish star plays nostalgic car mechanic and garage owner Jack in this latest revival at Harold Pinter Theatre, one of five characters whose hazy reminiscences intertwine over drinks in a County Leitrim pub
‘Although his diction sometimes drifts into inaudibility, Gleeson is a natural for the enchanting poetry of McPherson’s Blarney, which hypnotises the audience with its murky mood and lilting rhythms.’
According to London Theatre‘s Holly O’Mahoney, Gleeson, who last took to the stage a decade ago at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, ‘leads a pitch-perfect, five-strong ensemble in delivering this naturalistic play which invites the audience in on an evening at a cosy pub (designed by Rae Smith) in rural Ireland.
‘Gleeson’s Jack is a tricky part to land: he’s a character who must sardonically laugh along with his fellow drinkers’ playful jibes that he’s ugly and cantankerous, while somehow showing us he’s the most decent of the bunch.
‘In Gleeson’s performance, Jack exudes remarkable poise and dignity as a man soldiering on in the face of a life lived with some regrets.’
Elsewhere, The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish offered an unequivocally glowing assessment of Gleeson’s West End debut ina five star review.
He writes: ‘If you love the Irish actor Brendan Gleeson because of anything – or indeed everything – he has been in (from Braveheart past Harry Potter to In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin), then do hasten to the see him make his West End debut at the age of 70.
‘He’s the craggy-faced poster-boy for Conor McPherson’s spellbinding, atmospheric revival at the Harold Pinter Theatre of The Weir (1997), the Dublin playwright’s early masterpiece of laughter, grief and supernatural anecdotage in a rural Sligo bar.
‘If you’ve not registered Gleeson before, you’ll leave after 100 minutes persuaded you’ve seen one of the greats in action.’
For all its history, The Weir marks something of a first for the veteran Gleeson, who at 70 makes his West End debut in this new production
The cast also includes Kate Phillips (pictured), Owen McDonnell, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Seán McGinley
Praising a cast that also includes Kate Phillips, Owen McDonnell, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Seán McGinley, The Guardian‘s Chris Wiegand writes: ‘The headline star is Brendan Gleeson but The Weir is an ensemble: its characters are on different frequencies yet see each other for who they are.’
Wiegand offers additional praise for Gleeson’s ability to inhabit a character originally written for someone notably younger.
He adds: ‘With knotted brow, Gleeson’s Jack first unsteadily threads together a bit of local folklore but also gives the aching closer, a Krapp-like remembrance of romance unseized in youth that has dogged him daily since.
‘It’s heightened by Gleeson’s age (he is 70, the character is written as in his 50s) and by coming at the end of a performance rich with quips (“That fella’d peel a banana in his pocket”) and perplexed grimaces (starting with a lovely bit of physical comedy with a bar tap).’
Also commenting on Gleeson’s age, Jeremy Malies of Plays International writes: ‘Directing his own play for the first time, McPherson benefits from the monumental (and much hyped in pre-publicity) presence of Brendan Gleeson as Jack.
‘He is 20 years older than the part as written but you see why McPherson and the producers wanted him.’
In a four star review, The Independent‘s Alice Saville offers another enthusiastic assessment of Gleeson’s debut.
‘Garlanded Irish film actor Brendan Gleeson is the splashiest piece of casting here, and his performance is a standout,’ she writes.
‘He’s got a compelling kind of worn-out gravity as schlubby mechanic Jack, who puts on his best suit to welcome the new girl in town, then tells spine-tingling tales with a master storyteller’s assured confidence.
‘But the whole cast does justice to this naturalistic setting, bringing carefully observed humorous touches to its insular little booze-soaked world.’
The Weir launched at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre on September 12 and will run until December (pictured: Owen McDonnell)
Gleeson previously admitted his film schedule had prevented him accepting regular stage work before returning for The Weir ten years after he last performed in front of a live audience
Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage adds: ‘It is both naturalistic and numinous, an astonishing achievement when the playwright premiered it in 1997 at the age of 25, and just as wondrous today, with a fine new cast headed by Brendan Gleeson as the mechanic Jack, one of the regulars in a bar in rural Ireland.’
Gleeson previously admitted his relentless film and TV schedule had prevented him accepting regular stage work before returning for The Weir some ten years after he last performed in front of a live audience in Edna Walsh’s The Walworth Farce.
He told The Times: ‘I love film. I did theatre and then I started getting [film] parts. Braveheart was a big thing for me. Michael Collins.
‘Theatre is hard and it has to be worth it. This is a long stint: we go through to December. It’s fascinating, but it’s kind of exhausting.
‘So nothing kept me away except the older I get the better [film] parts seem to be coming in.’
