The Brightening Air

'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.

'The finest play of the year... a rich and subtle play that will surely endure for decades' - The iPaper

'Sharp and tender... nothing rings false in McPherson's delicious dialogue' - The Times

'A good Chekhovian mix of melancholy and humour' - Guardian

'Terrific... a haunting and very funny ensemble piece... richly steeped in Irish folkloric tradition... its haunting imagery will stay with you for a long time' - Telegraph

'Utterly wondrous... beautifully atmospheric, dancing a clever line between comedy and melancholy, realism and magic... McPherson's writing is pin-sharp, a rare combination of the riotous and the elegiac' - WhatsOnStage

'Audacious... hilarious and achingly moving... I bloody loved it' - Evening Standard

'Enthralling... a richly observed study of a family of quirky misfits imploding under the weight of their unattainable desires... McPherson's typically sparkling dialogue, dripping with vibrant Irish idiom and loaded with humour and profundity' - The Stage

Edgerton Foundation New Play Award