The Veil

by Conor McPherson

Overview

Set around a haunted house hemmed in by a restive, starving populace, The Veil weaves Ireland's troubled colonial history into a transfixing story about the search for love, the transcendental and the circularity of time. 

May 1822, rural Ireland. The defrocked Reverend Berkeley arrives at the crumbling former glory of Mount Prospect House to accompany seventeen year-old Hannah to England. She is to be married off to a marquis in order to resolve the debts of her mother's estate. However, compelled by the strange voices that haunt his beautiful young charge and a fascination with the psychic current that pervades the house, Berkeley proposes a seance, the consequences of which are catastrophic.

Conor McPherson's play The Veil was first performed in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre, London, in September 2011.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780012841
Publisher:	Hern, Nick Books
Publication date:	10/15/2014
Series:	NHB Modern Plays
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	740 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Conor McPherson is an award-winning Irish playwright. Educated at University College Dublin, he went on to found the Fly by Night Theatre Company, which produced several of his early plays. His best-known works include The Weir (Royal Court, winner of the 1999 Olivier Award for Best New Play), Dublin Carol (Altantic Theater Company, New York) and The Seafarer (National Theatre, also director). He has also written for film.

Conor McPherson is a playwright, screenwriter and director, born in Dublin in 1971.

His plays include: Rum and Vodka (Fly by Night Theatre Co., Dublin); The Good Thief (Dublin Theatre Festival; Stewart Parker Award); This Lime Tree Bower (Fly by Night Theatre Co. and Bush Theatre, London; Meyer-Whitworth Award); St Nicholas (Bush Theatre and Primary Stages, New York); The Weir (Royal Court, London, Duke of York's, West End and Walter Kerr Theatre, New York; Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle, George Devine Awards); Dublin Carol (Royal Court and Atlantic Theater, New York); Port Authority (Ambassadors Theatre, West End, Gate Theatre, Dublin and Atlantic Theater, New York); Shining City (Royal Court, Gate Theatre, Dublin and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York; Tony Award nomination for Best Play); The Seafarer (National Theatre, London, Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Booth Theater, New York; Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Tony Award nominations for Best Play); The Veil (National Theatre); The Night Alive (Donmar Warehouse, London and Atlantic Theater, New York); Girl from the North Country (Old Vic, London) and The Brightening Air (Old Vic, London, 2025).

Theatre adaptations include Daphne du Maurier's The Birds (Gate Theatre, Dublin and Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis), August Strindberg's The Dance of Death (Donmar at Trafalgar Studios), Franz Xaver Kroetz's The Nest (Young Vic, London), Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (West End, 2020) and Paweł Pawlikowski's Cold War (Almeida Theatre, 2023).

Work for the cinema includes I Went Down, Saltwater, Samuel Beckett's Endgame, The Actors, The Eclipse and Strangers.

His work for television includes an adaptation of John Banville's Elegy for April for the BBC, and the original television drama Paula for BBC2.

Awards for his screenwriting include three Best Screenplay Awards from the Irish Film and Television Academy; Spanish Cinema Writers Circle Best Screenplay Award; the CICAE Award for Best Film Berlin Film festival; Jury Prize San Sebastian Film Festival; and the Méliès d’Argent Award for Best European Film.