Connecticut Premiere Of Award-Winning Play—

‘The Weir’ Opens September 7

At The Little Theater

Town Players of Newtown has announced its September production will be Conor McPherson’s The Weir. This will be the Connecticut premier of this beautiful award-winning play hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as a modern classic.

The play is set in a small bar in contemporary rural Ireland. Mr McPherson has said it was inspired by visits to his grandfather, who used to “tell me stories. And then when you’re lying in bed in the pitch-black silence of the Irish countryside it’s easy for the imagination to run riot.”

Thus The Weir is full of ghost stories, as the bar’s regular customers pass an evening telling one another, and a woman newly arrived from Dublin, tales of fairies and hauntings. But the woman has ghosts of her own, and the play becomes what The London Guardian called “a spellbinder.”

Although tales of ghosts and fairies fill the script, make no mistake: this is most certainly not an evening of “little people” and quaint bedtime stories. The men drink, smoke and swear as they discuss the otherwise very ordinary lives they lead. Yet the play as it unfolds reveals the compassion and delicacy with which they deal with one another and with the haunted woman who comes to the village for solace.

The writing — lyric, earthy and vivid — shows Mr McPherson’s sensitive ear for the rhythms and idioms of Irish country speech. The story is equally perceptive about the ways in which humans survive the pain of living. The Times Literary Supplement noted Mr McPherson’s “gift for locating the greatest emotions in the smallest details.”

Under the direction of Ruth Anne Baumgartner of Fairfield are Leslie Van Etten Broatch of Milford, Collin Kiernan of Shelton, Alexander Kulcsar of Fairfield, Damien Langan of Bridgeport, and Rob Pawlikowski of Roxbury.

“The Weir is an ensemble play, and this is a strong ensemble of actors,” comments Ms Baumgartner.

Leslie Van Etten Broatch has been seen frequently on the Town Players stage, most recently as Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. Other memorable roles include Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals (also with Town Players) and Margaret Civil in A Perfect Ganesh (Putney Players, Stratford).

Collin Kiernan has performed most recently with Stratford Festival Theater and Shakespeare on the Sound and with the New Haven Theatre Company.

Alexander Kulcsar was last seen with Town Players as Wasp in Bartholomew Fair. He has performed his original one-man show Is This the Mileeenyum? An Evening with Mister Dooley for Westport Community Theatre and Square One Theatre (Stratford). At Square One he has also won three season acting awards and was most recently seen in Later Life.

Damien Langan has performed with numerous Connecticut theaters. He was in the Town Players production of Talking Heads several seasons ago; he was also seen in the Danbury production of Dancing at Lughnasa, with the former D’ART company.

Rob Pawlikowski comes to The Weir straight from playing Egeon in Comedy of Errors, one of his many roles with Town Players. He has also acted with Westport Community Theatre.

The Weir opens September 7 at The Little Theatre, on Orchard Hill Road in Newtown, and will continue Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm through September 29. There will be a Sunday matinee on September 23 at 2 pm.

All tickets are $10. Call 270-9144 for reservations and directions.