Irish playwright Conor McPherson tells wonderful ghost stories. His “Shining City” at Quotidian Theatre is no exception. On the surface, it’s the story of a man, John (Steve Beall), whose wife has died. But he keeps seeing her so clearly that he has to leave his house and move to a bed and breakfast. He seeks out the help of a therapist, Ian (John Decker), who is moving into an office in Dublin. John is his first client. But it turns out that Ian has problems of his own: he has left his girlfriend, Neasa (Laura Russell) and their baby, telling Neasa bluntly, “I don’t want this relationship” without being able to tell her why.

Yet beneath the surface narrative of doctor/patient and girlfriend/boyfriend relationships is a deeper story of how the individuals in “Shining City” relate to themselves, how they misrepresent their lives to other people, how they fabricate lies to keep themselves afloat amid vast oceans of guilt. Quotidian illuminates that murkier region very well.