‘Shining City’ coming soon

Published 1:30 am Sunday, November 8, 2015

‘Shining City’

Island Stage Left presents “Shining City” by Conor McPherson. The play will be shown at San Juan County Fairgrounds at the Marie Boe Building on Nov. 13 through Dec. 6. It opens Friday the 13th and thereafter plays Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. There are additional performances on Wednesday, Dec. 2 and no performance on Thanksgiving.

Do not miss this haunting and finely honed piece of contemporary theatrical magic. It is truly exceptional.

John, a recently bereaved sales rep, is haunted by the presence of his dead wife. In a series of confessional encounters with his Dublin therapist, Ian, a former priest, reveals the hoarded guilt that rationally explains an irrational phenomenon. But, as we learn in two complementary scenes, Ian has his own demons and ghosts to lay.

The dead continue to haunt the living in the very particular cosmos of Conor McPherson, but anyone expecting his new play, “Shining City,” to be a gloomy downer is in for a surprise.

The play comes laced with a compassion that makes the moment-by-moment experience of it a near-constant delight.

Be forewarned, though. You are likely to be haunted by the final coup de theatre!

Not suitable for children under the age of 13.