Set in County Sligo in the 1980’s the Brightening Air is Conor McPherson’s first original play since 2013, following on from his thrilling adaptation of Bob Dylan’s music in The Girl from the North Country and his adapted stage version of The Hunger Games. The play traces the return of Dermot, (Chris O’Dowd), to his run-down ancestral home which is now occupied by his two siblings, long-suffering Stephen (Brian Gleeson) who looks after their youngest sister, Billie (Rosie Sheeny), who is somewhat autistic and passionate about timetables, her chickens, and paint colours.
Along with Dermot’s wife Lydia, (Hannah Morrish) and his assistant, Freya (Aisling Kearns) with whom he is having an affair, the clan is joined by their uncle Pierre (Seán McGinley), a wild ex-priest who is on a mission to create a new retreat for prayer, and Elizabeth, his housekeeper (Derbhie Crotty).
McPherson interweaves numerous ideas and themes throughout the evening. On one level the play is about the notion of home and home ownership, as new information about hitherto undisclosed Wills is revealed throughout the evening. There are also other familiar McPherson themes of love and the supernatural, with Dermot’s wife desperate to procure magic water from a well on the property to make her husband fall in love with her again.
The play takes its title from a line from a WB Yeats poem which tells the story of fisherman whose catch turns into a beautiful, yet illusive girl. True love is just out of reach for the fisherman, and for the characters in the play.
McPherson, who also directs the piece, has a beautiful ear for humorous, interwoven dialogue when it comes to a roomful of Irish folk in conversation. His cast is constantly in motion as they bring onto the stage tables, chairs, table settings and food, and then strike the same items off the stage again, only to bring them all back on. Scenes full of family members flow seamlessly into scenes of pairs of various lovers trying to connect with one another. Stephen, it turns out, has been having an ongoing affair with Elizabeth, and likewise Billie with farmhand Brendan (Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty); Dermot is trying to justify his infatuation with Freya to his wife.
The Brightening Air marks something of a shift for McPherson—more historically grounded, more outwardly political—but it still pulses with the emotional intensity and moral complexity that distinguish his best work. The siblings and Uncle Pierre all want the house for their own ends, and McPherson is tuned into to the complexities of Irish families and the land. His characters are deep in moments of spiritual or romantic crisis. But beside the story at hand it is hard to say what the evening adds up to. The magical water turns out to be a sham, Uncle Pierre’s fantasy of a retreat for priests is realised, but the plot twist, like others, feels like another loose thread that doesn’t really cohere.
The acting is solid throughout, and the standout is Rosie Sheehy as Billy, a role where her autism would be easy to overplay. Sheehy brings a warmth and humorous grit to the role, and we become charmed by her unfiltered honesty and observations – indeed, she takes the production’s final, solo bow.
There is music throughout, some heartfelt piano pieces, some more contemporary musical pieces, but they feel like an unfocused add-on. The simple but effective set is sparse and dreamlike, containing the bare essential elements of the interior of the family home, with a muted photograph of an Irish seascape with the outline shadow of a building faintly projected on the back wall.
The Brightening Air
By: Conor McPhearson
Director: Conor McPhearson
Cast includes: Derbhie Crooty, Brian Gleeson, Aisling Kearns, Seán McGinley, Hannah Morrish, Chris O’Dowd, Rosie Sheehy
Until: Saturday 14 June 2025
Running Time: 2 ½ hours, including interval
Photo by Manuel Harlan
Review by Wilder Gutterson