The Playboy of the Western World

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The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright J. M. Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on January 26, 1907.[1] It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house -- a shebeen in County Mayo (on the North-West coast of Ireland) during the early 1900s. It tells the story of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his farm, claiming he killed his father. The locals are more interested in vicariously enjoying his story than in condemning his morality. He captures the romantic attention of the bar-maid Pegeen Mike, the daughter of Flaherty.

When The Playboy first opened in Dublin, it was the cause of civil disturbances as Catholic protesters voiced their objections to the portrayal of rural Irish Catholic morality.

Contents

[edit] Persons in the Play

  • Christy Mahon fake hero
  • Old Mahon, Christy's father, a squatter
  • Michael James Flaherty, a publican
  • Margaret Flaherty, called Pegeen Mike, Michael's daughter, and the bar-maid
  • Shawn Keogh, Pegeen's betrothed
  • Widow Quin, a widow of about thirty
  • Philly Cullen and Jimmy Farrell, farmers
  • Sara Tansey, Susan Brady, and Honor Blake, village girls
  • A Bellman
  • Some peasants

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

On the west coast of County Mayo[2]Christy Mahon stumbles into Flaherty's tavern. There he has been claiming that he is on the run because he killed his own father by driving a spear into his father's head. Flaherty praises Christy for his boldness, and Flaherty's daughter (and the barmaid), Pegeen falls in love with Christy, to the dismay of her betrothed, Shawn. Because of the novelty of Christy's exploits and the skill with which he tells his own story, he becomes something of a town hero. Many other women also become attracted to him, including the Widow Quin, who tries, unsuccessfully, to seduce him at the behest of Shawn. Christy also impresses the village woman by his victory at the race, using the slowest beast.

Eventually Christy's father, Mahon, who was only wounded, tracks him to the tavern. When the townsfolk realize that Christy's father is alive, everyone (including Pegeen) shuns him as a liar and a coward. In order to regain Pegeen's love and the respect of the town, Christy attacks his father a second time. This time it seems that Old Mahon really is dead, but instead of praising Christy, the townspeople, led by Pegeen, bind and prepare to hang him to avoid being implicated as accessories to his crime. Christy's life is saved when his father, beaten and bloodied, crawls back onto the scene, having improbably survived his son's second attack. Christy and his father leave to wander the world,. Shawn suggests he and Pegeen get married soon, but she dumps him. Pegeen then laments betraying and losing Christy, her playboy of the western world.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Interpretations and Observations

The "Western World" of the title is that rural wild west coast of Ireland where the action is located, "the lonesome west"[3]. In addition, there may be a little echo of the mythical West of Celtic legend, and even of America.[4] The time is the turn of the 20th century [5]. The main difficulty for most viewers of the play is believing that these remote peasants, however benighted, could glorify Christy's violent assault on his father. But when, at the end of the play, he re-assaulted his surprisingly-alive father in front of the villagers they turned on him, so it was not the act itself they were glorifying, but rather the fact that Christy was (they thought) on the run from the law — the English law.[6] As long as that seemed to be the case, it overshadowed the reality of the violence. As it turned out, of course, he was just being chased by his father.

Another way one could view the peasants' respect for Christy could be from his romancing of the affair through his good story telling. Each time the story is told, the man embellishes on his tale. The reason for the action transforms from silencing his father to not marrying an extremely ugly woman of highly loose morals. When the villages see the affair of Christy's second attempt to murder his father, they see the reality of the situation. The brutality, the violence, the blood lust, the anger all terrify the villagers as they begin to realize how unlikely it is to trust such a fierce man, even if he is a good storyteller. As Pegeen states, "...the blow of a loy, have taught me that there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed." (3. 545-547)

[edit] Adaptations

A movie version in 1962 starred Siobhán McKenna as Pegeen Mike and Gary Redmond as Christy Mahon. It was adapted and directed by Brian Desmond Hearst.

A musical version of this play, written by Kate Hancock and Richard B. Evans, premiered at the STAGES 2005 musical festival at the Theatre Building Chicago.

This play was adapted in 1984 by Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura, lifted out of turn of the century Ireland and set down in 1950's Trinidad, and retitled Playboy of the West Indies.

In 2006, a Mandarin language version of the play set in a hairdressers shop in a Beijing suburb was performed at the Beijing Oriental Theatre. Again, the play attracted controversy when a member of the audience complained about the shortness of the skirt worn by Sha Sha, playing the Sarah Tansey character. Following the complaint, the play was attended by two policemen.[7]

[edit] Quotes

  • "... it's great luck and company I've won me in the end of time — two fine women fighting for the likes of me — till I'm thinking this night wasn't I a foolish fellow not to kill my father in the years gone by." — Christy
  • "Drink a health to the wonders of the western world, the pirates, preachers, poteen-makers, with the jobbing jockies; parching peelers, and the juries fill their stomachs selling judgments of the English law." — Sara Tansey
  • "It's well you know what call I have. It's well you know it's a lonesome thing to be passing small towns with the lights shining sideways when the night is down, or going in strange places with a dog noising before you and a dog noising behind, or drawn to the cities where you'd hear a voice kissing and talking deep love in every shadow of the ditch, and you passing on with an empty, hungry stomach failing from your heart." — Christy
  • "A daring fellow is the jewel of the world...." — Michael Flaherty

"...the blow of a loy, have taught me that there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed."-Pegeen

  • "Oh my grief, I've lost him surely. I've lost the only Playboy of the Western World." — Pegeen Mike

[8]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Synge(1983), p vii
  2. ^ "poor girls walking Mayo in their thousands" in Synge(1998)
  3. ^ "glory this day in the lonesome west", and "wonders of the western world" in Synge (1998)
  4. ^ Synge (1983), p 112
  5. ^ Synge (1983), p.15
  6. ^ Kiely (1995) p.174
  7. ^ The Irish Times (23 March, 2006)
  8. ^ All quotes searchable in Synge (1998)

[edit] References

(NOTE that the Project Gutenberg version is a single file, without line or page numbers. So to locate precisely any reference simply employ a text search on the relevant quotation.)

[edit] See also

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