{"title":"Books by Conor McPherson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781839044199","title":"The Brightening Air","description":"'You'll remember how much of living is really just forgetting.' The family home is more than a building. It's a destination of pilgrimage, an inherited investment, a repository of memory or magic. But, for brother and sister Stephen and Billie, home is all they've got. Mucking along in their decaying farmhouse, they're doing just fine.   That is, until the arrival of an ex-clergyman uncle with an unscrupulous plan, a sister-in-law seeking a miracle, and a prodigal brother hell-bent on trouble…An entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland, Conor McPherson's play The Brightening Air was the winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. It was first performed at The Old Vic, London, in 2025, directed by the playwright.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307621396853,"sku":"9781839044199","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781839044199_75b1a8c4-0eca-4ef9-be7c-f64b9869ec4f.jpg?v=1786028073"},{"product_id":"9781839041181","title":"Girl from the North Country","description":"Duluth, Minnesota. 1934. A community living on a knife-edge. Lost and lonely people huddle together in the local guesthouse.   The owner, Nick, owes more money than he can ever repay, his wife Elizabeth is losing her mind, and their daughter Marianne is carrying a child no one will account for.   So, when a preacher selling bibles and a boxer looking for a comeback turn up in the middle of the night, things spiral beyond the point of no return...   In Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson beautifully weaves the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan into a show full of hope, heartbreak and soul. It premiered at The Old Vic, London, in July 2017, in a production directed by Conor McPherson, and later transferred to the West End, Broadway, Australia, Ireland and toured the UK.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307847889269,"sku":"9781839041181","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781839041181_580b0a6b-2d85-40f6-98f4-bb42cb6a7c2f.jpg?v=1786027946"},{"product_id":"9781848422216","title":"Conor McPherson Plays: One","description":"Four early plays from the author of The Weir, with a foreword by the author.   The plays in this volume – three monologues and a three-hander – were all written while Conor McPherson was in his twenties.   In This Lime Tree Bower (Crypt Arts Centre, Dublin, 1995; Bush Theatre, London, 1996), three young men from a small seaside town near Dublin tell us in overlapping monologues of their inextricably linked lives and the eventful week which was to change things for good.   St Nicholas (Bush Theatre, London, 1997) is an eccentric, teasing yarn in which a cynical and jaded drama critic falls for a beautiful young actress. In pursuing her, he meets a group of modern-day vampires who offer him eternal life – his part of the bargain is to feed their bloodlust.   Rum and Vodka (University College Dublin, 1992; City Arts Centre, Dublin, 1994) is a short monologue play in which a young Irishman with a drink problem tells of three momentous days in his life when his drab nine-to-five existence is obliterated in an escapist binge which threatens to engulf him.   The Good Thief (City Arts Centre, Dublin, 1994) is a monologue play about a petty criminal who is punished by his conscience when he becomes involved in a bungled kidnap.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307898450293,"sku":"9781848422216","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848422216_55d8a66c-836c-49e5-ac91-8796e0e0650e.jpg?v=1786029325"},{"product_id":"9781848422094","title":"Conor McPherson Plays: Three","description":"This volume of Conor McPherson's collected plays, covering a decade of writing, celebrates a fascination with the uncanny which has led him to be described as 'quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation' (New York Times).   In Shining City, a man seeks help from a counsellor, claiming to have seen the ghost of his dead wife. The play, premiered at the Royal Court, London, is 'up there with The Weir, moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping' (Daily Telegraph).   The Seafarer, premiered at the National Theatre before going on to become a Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, tells the story of an extended Christmas Eve card game, but one played for the highest stakes possible. 'McPherson proves yet again he is both a born yarn-spinner and an acute analyst of the melancholy Irish manhood' (Guardian)Set in 'the big house' in 1820s rural Ireland, The Veil is McPherson's first period play. Seventeen-year-old Hannah is to be married off in order to settle the debts of the crumbling estate. But when Reverend Berkeley arrives, determined to orchestrate a séance, chaos is unleased. 'A cracking fireside tale of haunting and decay' (The Times)The Birds, hauntingly adapted from the short story by Daphne du Maurier, is 'deliciously chilling, claustrophobic, questioning, frightening; and with a twist' (Irish Independent). It is published here for the first time, as is The Dance of Death, a new version of Strindberg's classic, which premiered at the Trafalgar Studios in London. 'A spectacularly bleak yet curiously bracing drama that often makes you laugh out loud' (Daily Telegraph).   Completing the volume is a Foreword by the author.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308325908853,"sku":"9781848422094","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848422094_7ca61abc-193f-434e-a86f-aec7bda8de0f.jpg?v=1786029322"},{"product_id":"the-weir","title":"The Weir","description":"The spellbinding, beautifully observed hit from the master of suspenseful realism.   A bar in a remote part of Ireland. The local lads are swapping spooky stories to impress a young woman recently moved to the area from Dublin. As the drink flows and the stories become increasingly frightening, it's clear that Valerie has something on her mind. She has a tale to tell that'll stop them all dead in their tracks.   Conor McPherson's play The Weir combines superbly chilling tales of the supernatural with the hilarious banter of a small community in the heart of rural Ireland.    The Weir was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs at the Ambassadors Theatre on West Street, London, in July 1997. It transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in February 1998, where it played for two years.   The play went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1999. McPherson also won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright.   The Weir has since been performed very widely, including on Broadway in 1999. It received a major West End revival at the Donmar Warehouse in 2013, and transferred to the West End once again. It was voted one of the hundred most significant plays of the twentieth century in a poll conducted by the National Theatre in 2000.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490283757941,"sku":"9781854596437","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854596437.jpg?v=1786442170"},{"product_id":"conor-mcpherson-plays-two","title":"Conor McPherson Plays: Two","description":"The second collection of plays from the multi-award winning author.   Included in this volume is Conor McPherson's The Weir, one of the most successful plays of recent years. In a bar in a remote part of Ireland, the local lads are swapping spooky stories to impress a young woman from Dublin newly moved into the area... 'A spellbinder that transfixes you... No praise in fact is too high' GuardianDublin Carol is set on Christmas Eve, when a Dublin undertaker is visited by his estranged daughter urging him to face up to the past. 'McPherson writes like a dream.... The play works an ingenious spell' Daily MailPort Authority tells of three interwoven lives: a boy leaves home for the first time; a man starts a job for which he is unqualified; a pensioner is sent a mysterious package... 'Overwhelmingly poignant... desolate, searing eloquence' Evening StandardAnd in Come on Over, published here for the first time, a Jesuit priest, sent to investigate a 'miracle' in his home town, re-encounters the woman who loved him thirty years before. 'Piercingly evocative, powerfully exploring the tension between human and divine love' Daily TelegraphThe volume also contains an Afterword by the author.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490287264117,"sku":"9781854597779","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854597779.jpg?v=1786442174"},{"product_id":"the-cherry-orchard","title":"The Cherry Orchard","description":"'My life has no sense or meaning without this place.'When Lyubov Ranevskaya returns to her childhood estate after years abroad, she finds her family home and beloved cherry orchard under threat.   As old loyalties falter and new ambitions rise, a world of privilege begins to crumble. Can Lyubov embrace the future, or will the pull of memory prove impossible to escape?A deeply moving portrait of love, loss and letting go, Conor McPherson's poignant adaptation of Chekhov's masterpiece opened at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in 2026, directed by Ian Rickson and starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Stephen Mangan.   'Quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation' The New York Times on Conor McPherson","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57536550994293,"sku":"9781839045998","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"conor-mcpherson-plays-four","title":"Conor McPherson Plays: Four","description":"Acclaimed as a major dramatist since his early success with The Weir, Conor McPherson's ability to weave theatrical magic reaches a new maturity in these four plays, premiered over the span of a dozen years. In each of them, deeply suppressed emotion is exposed to shattering outside forces in pitch-perfect writing that combines grit with lyricism, humour with profundity, and the riotous with the elegiac…The Night Alive (Donmar Warehouse, London, 2013) is set in a Dublin bedsit, where the lives of two middle-aged men are sent spinning by a new arrival, promising either redemption or annihilation. 'Extraordinary... [McPherson] has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension' (New York Times)Girl from the North Country (The Old Vic, London, 2017) weaves the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan into an unforgettable drama set in a Minnesota guesthouse in the 1930s. 'Beguiling and soulful and quietly, exquisitely, heartbreaking. A very special piece of theatre' (London Standard)Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter Theatre, West End, 2020) is a stunning adaptation of Chekhov's masterpiece, a portrayal of life at the turn of the twentieth century, full of tumultuous frustration, dark humour and hidden passions. 'McPherson pulls off a feat of magical reinvention, and allows us to see the play anew' (WhatsOnStage)The Brightening Air (The Old Vic, 2025) is an entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland, winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. 'The finest play of the year... a rich and subtle play that will surely endure for decades' (The iPaper)The volume also contains a foreword by the author.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57536551584117,"sku":"9781839046100","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-night-alive","title":"The Night Alive","description":"An inimitably warm and stylish play that deftly mines the humanity to be found in the most unlikely of situations.   Tommy's not a bad man, he's getting by. Renting a run-down room in his uncle Maurice's house, just about keeping his ex-wife and kids at arm's length and rolling from one get-rich-quick scheme to the other with his pal Doc. Then one day he comes to the aid of Aimee, who's not had it easy herself, struggling through life the only way she knows how.   Their past won't let go easily. But together there's a glimmer of hope they could make something more of their lives. Something extraordinary. Perhaps.   The Night Alive premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in June 2013, before transferring to the Atlantic Theater in New York. It was named Best New Play at the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards 2014.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57573223989621,"sku":"9781848423367","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848423367.jpg?v=1789396053"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-conor-mcpherson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}