The Weir

Conor McPherson is an Irish play wright and director. He was born in Dublin and began writing plays while at university.  He eventually went on to found Fly by Night Theatre Company, which has performed several of his plays. He has written 12 plays including The Weir, Port Authority, Shining City, and a stage adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s story The Birds. He has won several awards for his plays as a whole Stewart Parker Award, Meyer Whitworth Award, Guinness/Royal National Theatre Ingenuity Award, Pearson TV Writer in Residence Award, Manchester Evening News Award Best Touring Production and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Play, the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Director and the Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard for Best Play. The awards he received for writing The Weir are Evening Standard Award, George Devine Award, Critics Circle Award, and Laurence Olivier Award.

In The Weir, we get four individuals sharing stories, that all have a supernatural slant, with the group. A weir is a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow. This is also an important theme in this play. There is a flow between the stories and their relationships with each other.

1)      Do you agree with the title of this play?

2)      Would you change it? To what?

3)      This play was written from the point of view of Irish people. I know I had problems understanding what they were talking about sometimes. Did any of you?

4)      Do you think your opinion of the play would change if you were from the Ireland? (It really isn’t that relevant a question but I think it’s an interesting thought)

5)      This play takes place in present day. Do you think it would be different at all if it was set in a different time period? Why or why not?