Irish playwright Colin McPherson's The Weir is the first play of the millennium for the Old Globe Theatre. Scheduled for a Feb. 5 opening in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, the play is directed by Joseph Hardy and features a cast that includes Nesbitt Blaisdell, Don Campbell, Adrienne Dreiss, Dennis Parlato and C.J. Wilson.

The creative team is comprised of Kent Dorsey (set & lights), Robert Morgan (costumes), Jeff Ladman (sound) and Raul Moncada (stage manager).

Set in a rural Irish pub, The Weir focuses on four men who swap ghostly tales about their town to impress an attractive woman from Dublin. As the tales become more weird and revealing, the young woman has a startling tale of her own, blurring the line between the real world and the haunting world of fairies and spirits.

In 1997 McPherson was commissioned by Royal Court Theatre in London to write The Weir. It later won the London Critics Circle Award, two Olivier Awards, including one for "Best New Play." Other McPherson plays include St. Nicholas, Rum and Vodka, The Good Thief and This Lime Tree Bower. The playwright has turned the latter work into a screenplay, Salt Water, which he is also directing.

Old Globe Theatre is located in Balboa Park. For tickets and information call (619) 239-2255. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent