Ballyshannon’s Seán McGinley nears completion of successful West End play

Ballyshannon actor Seán McGinleyplaceholder image
Ballyshannon actor Seán McGinley

Ballyshannon actor, Seán McGinley, will play the final week of his latest West End theatre two-month run.

Ballyshannon actor, Seán McGinley, will play the final week of his latest West End theatre two-month run.

McGinley has been starring alongside Chris O’Dowd, Rosie Sheehy, and Brian Gleeson at the Old Vic Theatre, in an acclaimed new play written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson entitled The Brightening Air.

The final performance of the play in this current, and successful run, will be on Saturday, June 14, after having started in mid-April. 

McGinley has played the character of Uncle Pierre, a newly blind and “more or less excommunicated” priest, in a play set in a crumbling house in Sligo in the 1980s. 

The Irish Times gave a five-star review for the production, hailing it as “apt for a production that reconfigures theatrical devices and Irish folk talkies to explore how we cope when our dreams collide with reality.”

Another review from The Guardian said there were “heaps of charm” with “an incredibly strong cast.”

The Brightening Air is the latest project of McGinley’s vast career, who has also appeared in The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Braveheart, Michael Collins, and Gangs of New York. 

Register
Follow us
© 2026 Formpress Publishing LTD. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice