The Brightening Air

How much of living is really just forgetting?

The family home is more than merely a building. It can be a destination of pilgrimage, an inherited investment, a repository of memory or even magic.

And, for brother and sister Stephen and Billie, home is all they have. 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.

A world premiere from Olivier Award-winning writer and director Conor McPherson (The Weir, Girl from the North Country), The Brightening Air is an entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland.

The cast includes Derbhle Crotty (Portia Coughlan), Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty (Juno and the Paycock), Brian Gleeson (Bad Sisters), Aisling Kearns (Juno and the Paycock), Seán McGinley (A Whistle in the Dark), Hannah Morrish (The Merchant of Venice 1936), Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) and Rosie Sheehy (Machinal).

Completing the company are understudies Ella Maria Carmen, Callum Cronin, Joseph McCarthy and Amy Vicary-Smith.

Set and costume design is by Rae Smith, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Gregory Clarke, movement and intimacy by Lucy Hind, casting by Serena Hill, voice by Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth, dialect by Danièle Lydon and fight direction by Kate Waters. The associate director is Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, associate set designer is Niall McKeever, the costume supervisor is Poppy Hall, the props supervisor is Fahmida Bakht and the music associate is Benjamin McQuigg.