Conor McPherson loves a good ghost story. While not all of his works for the stage include literal spectres and otherworldly figures, even when his plays take place on the firm ground of reality, they still very often deal with loss, in a way that casts the ghostly shadow of memory and regret across the proceedings. In the case of his first film since 2003’s The Actors, all of these elements, conveyed in the…

Annie Grier and Matt Dougherty in Scena’s production of Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol. Ghosts, demons, and various otherworldly entities populate the plays of Conor McPherson, but the only spirit at work in Dublin Carol, which Scena Theatre is currently presenting in its professional Washington premiere, comes in a bottle labeled “Jameson”. Of course, drink is also a staple of McPherson’s work: the playwright, a recovering alcoholic himself, has long been concerned with the place…