A new production, The Brightening Air, from award-winning writer Conor McPherson opens in the Gate Theatre in Dublin tomorrow night.
Directed by the writer, the play, set in in a rural homestead in Ireland in the 1980s, is getting its Irish premiere, having had a run at the Old Vic in London last year with a cast including Sean McGinley, Brian Gleeson and Chris O’Dowd.
McPherson said the story takes place “up around Sligo, that kind of area, and it’s set in a house out in the countryside” adding that it tells the story of “a brother and sister who are adults living together in this place where they grew up, and they’re mucking along there”.
McPherson said the siblings at the heart of the story “don’t have a lot of money, there’s not a lot going on, and then their uncle arrives, who is an excommunicated priest, who’s essentially looking for somewhere to be, and things start to get stirred up when their brother, played by Chris O’Dowd, also arrives to try and get involved in this whole mess”.
The Brightening Air is described as “a haunting new play about longing, magic and the fates that tear us apart” where adult siblings, Billie and Stephen, “share their family home in their own semi-functional way”.
Chris O’Dowd, Kate Gilmore and Brian Gleeson on stage in The Brightening Air
McPherson said the excommunicated uncle, Fr Pierre, and estranged brother, Dermot, arrive to disturb it all, awakening hidden forces with devastating consequences.
For O’Dowd, who plays Dermot, he is looking forward to bringing the play to an Irish audience having been part of the cast at the first run of the show in London.
“It’s much more craic, because you have that initial beautiful moment with an audience every day of the week where you come in and show this whole story that somebody else has created for you and that is wonderful,” he said.
O’Dowd described his character as a “complete blackguard”, stating how “doing that in front of people and hearing the oohs and ahs of like, oh, what a moron, or what a delight, and then falling apart, you get to see it in real time, and that adds to what you’re doing!” he said.
On wanting to be part of this production, he said: “I’m a big fan of Conor’s work, and we both kind of came through UCD in different generations, so when I was coming into acting and getting mad at plays and putting stuff on, it was his early work that we were doing, like This Lime Tree Bower”.
Derbhle Crotty, who plays Elizabeth, described “the joy” of being part of a large cast in the show.
She outlined how the show tells the story of “all sorts of people are at crises in their lives with all sorts of relations, relationships, the wrong people loving the wrong people, all the ingredients. and a sense of the supernatural as well”.
She said that it is “very fast-paced, very funny, and very touching”.
When asked why he had set the play in the northwest in the 1980s, McPherson said that he decided to set it in Ireland in 1981 or so “because around that time I would have been about 10 maybe, and I used to go on my holidays up to Co Leitrim, and stories about folklore and magic were still very much in the air, where older people might tell you a story, and it felt first-hand.
“And so that oral tradition still felt quite alive at that point. So, setting the play around there, I think, just allows those things to live for me a little bit more”.
Derbhle Crotty in The Brightening Air (Pic: Patricio Cassinoni)
Dubliner McPherson, who has had international acclaim with his writing with productions including The Weir and Girl from the North Country, said that returning home marks a special moment for him.
His writing has garnered him the Laurence Olivier Award, New York Critics’ Circle Award, Evening Standard Award, London Critics’ Circle Award, and five Tony Award nominations.
“The Gate Theatre is where I first had my plays on in Dublin as professional productions, so it’s wonderful to be back here. It’s a great space, and it’s really exciting to be here as I love working in Dublin,” he said.
He said he “loves getting in the room with actors”.
He said: “It’s always so inspiring, and it’s really a great way for me to finish the play because they always have terrific ideas, and it’s always great to try stuff.
“So, for me, directing my own work, it’s really just a way of allowing a certain amount of freedom into the room, which, ironically, if you’re working with another director, they’re sometimes a little more strict about keeping the script the way it is, whereas I think sometimes I’m a little easier and just trying to let things happen, so that’s why I direct.”
He added that “it’s kind of counterintuitive, but it works for me”.
On being a part of the cast, O’Dowd said “when one of the playwrights of his generation has a new play and it’s an Irish play, you kind of feel very lucky to be originating it”.
He added: “I haven’t done a play in Dublin in 22 years, so it felt it was long overdue so to have a new play from Conor, where it’s set in Ireland and this is the Irish premiere and we get to bring it home is something really special”.
The show runs at the Gate Theatre until 30 August.