The Playboy of the Western World
J.M. Synge · 1907
A young man arrives in a Mayo village claiming he killed his father, and the locals treat him as a hero. Synge's comedy provoked riots at the Abbey Theatre because Irish nationalists thought it insulted Ireland. Yeats stood on stage and defended it. The riots are now more famous than the play, which is a shame, because the play is brilliant.
The case against
Synge's peasant dialect is an invention, gorgeous and synthetic, and on the page it takes real effort to hear; this is a script, and reading it is half the experience. The plot is one joke turned over for three acts: villagers adore a parricide until the father shows up. Pegeen aside, the villagers are a chorus of credulity.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
