 By J.M. Synge
Directed by Robert Moss
"I’ll say a strange man is a marvel, with his mighty talk; but...there’s a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed."
– Pegeen , Playboy of the Western World, Act III
Exactly 100 years after its stormy première in 1907, J.M. Synge’s comedy The Playboy of the Western World, continues to astonish by its originality and exuberance. A tiny and remote community in the rural West of Ireland is plunged into turmoil by the arrival of the fugitive Christy Mahon, a young man who has risen up against the tyranny of his father and killed him with a shovel. Poetic Irish imaginations catch fire and the timid Christy is recreated overnight as a local hero. Terrified of women until now, young Christy finds himself empowered to woo and win the heart of the fiery Pegeen. The wildest hopes and dreams of the entire community are heated to boiling point in an outpouring of gloriously funny and intoxicating language…but what happens when those hopes and dreams bump into reality? Originally condemned as a scurrilous portrayal of rural Ireland, Synge’s play has come into focus as a picaresque comic masterpiece and Christy’s metamorphosis heralded as one of the glories of modern drama. Playboy is the SSC directorial debut of Robert Moss, Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage and founding director of the Playwrights Horizons theatre school in affiliation with New York University. The cast includes SSC Artistic Director Paul Whitworth. Photo: Director Robert Moss.
Production Sponsors
- Carolyn Hyatt
- Sue Dolkas (The Porter Sesnon Foundation)
- Ann and Mark Hamburg |
