‘The Weir’s’ Irish Pub Mates Make for Flavorful Characters

Conor McPherson’s “The Weir” is the kind of play in which you have to appreciate the rhythms and colors of language, particularly as spoken by the Irish--where a woman’s escort orders her a drink, and instead of “She’s thirsty,” says, “The tongue is stickin’ out of her.”

Those who don’t relish such flavorful descriptions are likely to leave the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter theater wondering why “Weir” is even on stage. It doesn’t rely on a conventional plot. Or a dramatic arc. Or a climactic moment. It simply vivifies the way shared feelings and experiences can forge new bonds and restore old ones.

“The Weir” is set in an Irish countryside pub, where working-class regulars Jack (Nesbitt Blaisdell) and Jim (Don Campbell) are joined by wealthy pal Finbar (Dennis Parlato), who rarely pops in anymore, and the new-in-town woman he’s showing around. Finbar’s married, which has inspired gossip, but the relationship turns out to be entirely aboveboard. Valerie (Adrienne Dreiss) is up from Dublin for some seclusion and has rented one of Finbar’s cottages.

That cottage becomes the topic of conversation fueled by abundant beer, stout and whiskey. Jack, having fun with Finbar, tells of the local belief that the little house is plagued by “fairies” that are upset because it blocks their path to the river. Finbar, deflecting attention from his property, responds with his own ghostly account of a teen neighbor and her dying baby-sitter. Jim chimes in with a tale of grave-digging and a spooky “pervert” who wanted to be buried with a little girl.

Valerie, hardly speaking until now, then summons up her own story. The reason she’s left home: She received a strange phone call from her young daughter shortly after the girl fatally injured herself in a swimming pool. Valerie’s taking time out to compose herself.

The men realize that, in the conversational competition, they’ve been bested. They regard Valerie with new respect, welcoming her to the community, and they realize the evening has brought them closer.

There’s no emotional upheaval, and if there are hints that the otherworldly stories are somehow linked, such a connection is never developed. Thus, the success of “Weir” rests on superb characterizations, and director Joseph Hardy’s cast--splendidly coached in Irish speech by Claudia Hill-Sparks--is immaculate.

Most memorable is Blaisdell, a bushy-browed, congenial Jack, who is well accompanied by Campbell, Parlato, Dreiss and C.J. Wilson as the cooperative bartender.

Kent Dorsey’s set is dead-on, an inviting room with working and balky taps, well-worn woods and a heating stove, and his warm lighting subtly dims around each focused storyteller. Robert Morgan’s costumes complement the script in explaining the characters, and Jeff Ladman’s country sounds establish and maintain the ambience.

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* “The Weir,” Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Balboa Park, San Diego, Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends March 29. $23-$39. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes (no intermission).