By Nick Martin

At the Huntington Theatre, Conor McPherson’s play “Shining City” is brought to life by the Tony-award nominated director Robert Falls in a ‘shining’ piece of theatrical beauty.

The play is set in a Victorian-style office in Dublin. The story centers around John, a recently widowed man who seeks therapy after the sudden death of his wife. He goes to see a therapist named Ian, who is dealing with his own relationship problems.

Both men deal with guilt issues. John starts to see Ian because he feels guilty about the state of his marriage shortly before the death of his wife. John also feels a great deal of responsibility for his wife’s death because of an affair he nearly had with another woman. After seeing the ghost of his wife haunting him in their house, he goes to Ian unable to sleep or accomplish anything.

The audience soon discovers Ian’s conscience is no better than John’s. After his first meeting with John, Ian has a fight with his fianc’eacute;e, Neasa, who is currently living with Ian’s brother and his wife while caring for her and Ian’s newborn daughter. She begs Ian to return to his brother’s house because she can’t stand living there without him anymore. He quietly tells her that he doesn’t want a relationship anymore and she explodes.

The scenes between John and Ian are the anchors of the play. Each one threads the interactions of the two men with the other scenes. The first scene deals with John’s issues with his marriage; the following scene between Neasa and Ian shows the faults in their relationship.

Robert Falls works his magic in this play, making every detail important. The characters’ monologues are only half of the show. The other half is the way each character conveys what he or she says.

The play also gets its magic from the cast Falls brought to the stage. Both Jay Whittaker (Ian) and John Judd (John) are seasoned veterans of Chicago Theatre and put on a brilliant show.

Judd skillfully embodies a man in deep pain who is desperately trying to find help to ease his grief but he also cannot help but rip into himself when he admits to Ian, an ex-priest, his transgressions in marriage. The scenes shift back and forth from therapy sessions to confessionals.

Wiesner was up against the challenge of keeping attention on his quiet character, especially when Judd was onstage, but he succeeded. There is something about Wiesner that is mysterious yet intriguing and balances the outlandish Judd.

The performance was a wonderful piece of entertainment that combined humor with some of the fundamental challenges in life. One word of advice: be sure to pay attention until the end for the coup de theatre (surprise) in the last scene.

Performances will run through April 6. Tickets cost from $15 to $70, depending on seating, and can be purchased at huntingtontheatre.org or at the box office.