The Brightening Air

by Conor McPherson

'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.

Genres: Plays

131 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

Conor McPherson is an Irish playwright and director.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until the 4th and final act, I was sure this would be a five-star play - but unfortunately, I didn't feel like McPherson quite stuck the landing. Still, it's been a dozen years since the playwright's last str8 play (he has been concentrating on musical librettos), so it's still a cause for celebration.

As virtually every review has pointed out, this is kind of an Irish Chekhovian piece, with flashes of McPherson's trademark mysticism. There were some grumblings that the central character of Billie, who we suspect is somewhere on the autistic spectrum, was a bit cliched - but I found her to be quite compelling and truthfully rendered.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/revie...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...

[Róisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That perhaps it’s all this simple: you really knew me. And I really knew you. And in those moments, in each other, we saw the face of God.”

[Bookthesp1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of wish I’d seen this on stage since the dynamic and “ beat” very much depends on pacing, delivery and the music played by characters on stage. A play inspired in part by Yeatsian mysticism ( inc the title) and set in Sligo ( where Yeats is buried?) but also firmly in a Chekhov vein of family strife and boldly drawn characters. The dialogue starts with the pace of a steam train and then slowly beds in to a minor key - circular action bookended by similar scenes - plenty of themes played around with inc family; inheritance ; folklore ; unrequited love ; religion, miracles and much else.

Intriguing ; funny ; and classic McPherson / worth a read - hope there is a stage revival soonish

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this play - a beautiful, elegiac thing. I'm struck by how McPherson can so consistently write about faith in a way that takes the act of faith so seriously, rather than just talking seriously about faith. There's no other playwright I know who would put an actual, honest-to-God miracle in the third act.

The original production at the Vic was also enormously helped by the presence of nation's-greatest-actor Rosie Sheehy as Billie, another of McPherson's meticulous character studies.

[sonataiscool · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved billie even though she was kind of mean

[Campbell Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful play.