Vera, feisty but fading, and Ronnie, washed up and permanently half-drunk, preside over a grubby pub/hotel in present-day Belfast. We watch them - and their variously inadequate 'regulars' - through one long day in which Ronnie fails to secure the pub's financial future and Vera looks set to run off with the feckless Iggy.
Closing Time was chosen as one of the plays to open the National Theatre's new Loft season, a new studio space carved out of the Lyttelton foyer. It also represented Owen McCafferty's London debut.
Closing Time was first performed at the National Theatre, London, on 9th September 2002.
Directed by james kerr
Cast includes
Vera - Pam Ferris
Iggy - Patrick O’Kane
Robbie - Jim Norton
Joe - Lalor Roddy
Alec - Kieran Ahern
Set Design - Rae Smith
Sound Design - Rich Walsh
Lighting Designer - Steve Barnett
Costume Design - Sharon Robinson
“It may be closing time in the province itself, but the existence of a writer as good as McCafferty induces a perverse, paradoxical hope.”