REVIEW: Star Bar returns to the stage with new haunts
The windswept moors of Ireland can be a heartbreakingly lonely place. And never more so, it seems, than for the five people who gather in a rustic pub in Conor McPherson’s 1997 play, “The Weir.”
Marking Star Bar’s return after a one-year hiatus, this Olivier Award-winning drama is often advertised as a spine-tingling collection of ghost stories, but the stories are actually the weakest part. Only two are truly compelling.
It’s what goes on behind these stories that gives the play its poignancy and power.
As the conversation ebbs and flows, it gradually becomes clear that the play is really about the different ways people end up alone and their often feeble attempts to connect with those around them.
It’s not an easy piece to perform. McPherson’s rambling, stream-of-consciousness dialogue presents a challenge to even the most gifted actors, but the cast carries it off expertly, breathing life into every brogue-tinged word.
Alysabeth Clements Mosley brings a raw emotional honesty to her role as Valerie, a lovely newcomer from the city, and it’s her tale of what happened to her young daughter at a swimming pool that’s most haunting.
Michael Augenstein provides a delightful comic touch as a whiskey-loving old duffer (“small one, please”), lightening the barroom banter with his all-too-earnest observations.
Only Joseph Forbeck left me wanting, his performance as a curmudgeonly mechanic so full of affected sighs and lip smacking that it was distracting.
I also think director Tammy Smith made a mistake in having the actors present the tales in a straightforward way, rather than as the subtle jockeying for Valerie’s attention that McPherson intended.
But the characters are so well-drawn and the performances so true-to-life you barely notice this shortcoming.
And besides, it’s just nice to have Star Bar back.
GRADE: B+
“The Weir” by the
Star Bar Players
When: 8 p.m. today and Saturday and Oct. 23-24, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Five Star Decor, 310 Tia Juana St.
Tickets: $10; starbarplayers.org
