The pain of faulty connections permeates “Shining City,“ the 2004 Conor McPherson drama that opens Henley Street Theatre Company’s third season. McPherson is the 30-something Irish phenom whose skill has been stunning New York and London audiences for a decade. Richmond A-list actors Larry Cook and Joe Inscoe inhabit the core of the play. Cook is Ian, who’s left the priesthood and set up a psychotherapy practice in Dublin. Among his first patients is John (Inscoe), who’s grieving the recent death of his wife in a car wreck.

Henley Street Theatre Company artistic director James Ricks has crossed the Rubicon: He has bought a car. “I haven’t had a car since high school,“ the 35-year-old thespian said recently in an interview at Panera Bread at Willow Lawn shopping center. “I’ve been living in New York and D.C. for the last 15 years. I haven’t had any need for a car.“

‘Shining City’ opening delayed     The Henley Street Theatre Company’s opening performance of “Shining City,“ scheduled to begin today at Pine Camp Community Center, 4901 Old Brook Road, has been postponed to next Thursday.  The run of the Conor McPherson play directed by Bo Wilson will be extended through Oct. 24.

Bootleg Shakespeare. A true story about a radium-poisoning scandal. A black comedy whose characters include a talking apartment and a ghostly Justin Timberlake. Those are some of the enticements that Richmond-area theaters will present in the 2009-10 season. Firehouse Theatre Project artistic director Carol Piersol might have been speaking for many company leaders when she said of her play-selection process, “I make a pile of plays that hit me in the gut - and then I try to get variety.“

Henley Street Theatre Company is not known for playing it safe. Not yet two years old, the Richmond troupe has mounted such rarely staged fare as “The Spanish Tragedy,“ by 16th-century author Thomas Kyd, and “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail,“ by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (who are better known for penning “Inherit the Wind”). To kick off its 2008-09 season, the company presented a multimedia “Richard III” that commented obliquely on 21st-century journalism.