59. The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge

The plot of The Playboy of the Western World is as follows (as summarized by an unsympathetic reviewer in the Dublin Freeman’s Journal of February 2 1907):

A broken-down, evil-looking tramp enters a low public-house on the coast of Mayo, and after some inquiry admits to those gathered there that he has murdered his father. The doubting, mistrustful attitude of his hearers at once changes into one of awe and admiration. He is installed as pot-boy at the request of the publican’s daughter, and is left in charge of the shebeen by the father.

In the second act we are shown the countryside flocking to pay homage to the man who, in the language of the dramatist, has ‘killed his da’. The women are depicted wooing with no trace of modesty this delightful type of strong, passionate man. Pegeen-Mike, the publican’s daughter, jilts her timid betrothed for him. Ultimately, however, the supposed murdered parent turns up, and recognises his son, whose popularity then declines as a natural consequence.

The play is thus a story of Irish peasant life. The ‘playboy’ — slang of the day for a champion or sportsman — is a poor farmer, Christy Mahon, who boasts that he has killed his father by striking him with a ‘loy’ (a spade). The ‘Western World’ is the rugged and backward west of Ireland.

During the composition of the play Synge made several attempts at a title — among them The Fool of Farnham, The Murderer (A Farce) and Murder Will Out, or, The Fool of the Family — before arriving at his final choice. The very different title The Playboy of the Western World was of great significance to the reception of the play and his own career. The reasons were largely political.

In 1907, in the period before the creation of the Irish Free State, the whole of the island of Ireland was still under the control of the British parliament. The nationalist movement was flexing its muscles — it was the period immediately before the Easter Rising of 1916. The Dublin Abbey Theatre, home of the ‘National Theatre’ of Ireland, was a forum for debate on the meaning of Irishness and the practicability of home rule. Founded in 1904 as an offshoot of the Irish Literary Theatre, the Abbey had staged plays by WB Yeats, JM Synge, Lady Gregory, Æ, Oliver St John Gogarty and Thomas MacDonagh. It was seen as key to the Irish Literary Revival.

In this context, when The Playboy, with its low characters, disturbing violence and glorification of parricide, received its première at the Abbey in February 1907, it was seen in some quarters as a treacherous attack on Irishness itself, and particularly on the ordinary Catholic peasantry of the rural West. What happened next has come to be known as ‘the Playboy riots’. The Irish Independent described events on opening night as the play approached its second act:

The act went on, but not a soul in the place heard a word, so great was the din created by the folk in the gallery.

The latter sang songs, hissed, called the policemen names, denounced the players, invited the author to a free fight, and before the act was over the curtain went down amidst terrific hissing and boohing. There were again cries for the author, but he did not come forward; and Mr. Fay, coming to the footlights, said something which was not audible, and the curtain went down again amidst cheers.

At this juncture Lady Gregory and the author of the play entered the auditorium, and there were again cries for the author’s speech. Mr. Synge, who took his seat near the orchestra, when asked by a reporter if he would say anything, replied that he was suffering from influenza, and could not speak; and owing to the rigorous cries of the audience he was obliged to leave the auditorium.

The final act was then proceeded with, but no one in the house heard a word of it owing to the din created by the audience, many of whom cried ’Sinn Fein’; ‘Sinn Fein Amhain’ and ‘Kill the Author’.

The audience was in no doubt that ‘the Western World’ referred specifically to the Western counties of Ireland. As the Evening Mail reported, during the disturbances ‘...someone called out “That’s not Western life”. At the close of this act a burly young fellow in the front of the pit started to sing in lusty tones, “The Men of the West”, and the chorus was taken up by those around him.’ Letters in the newspapers in subsequent days included comments such as the following, from ‘A Western Girl’: ‘I am well acquainted with the conditions of life in the West, and not only does this play not truly represent these conditions, but it portrays the people of that part of Ireland as a coarse, besotted race, without one gleam of genuine humour or one sparkle of virtue…’

It is difficult to see the use of ‘Western’ in the title as anything other than a piece of deliberate provocation by Synge. It raised the stakes significantly, pointing a finger straight at the salt-of-the-earth stereotype of rural Ireland which was so dear to the heart of the growing nationalist movement.

As in many later controversies, the play was attacked by people who had obviously never seen it. One reviewer spoke of ‘a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform’. Apart from a couple of ‘bloodies’ there is in fact nothing offensive in the language of the play, and the sexual content is muted even by 1907 standards. But perhaps the reviewer had been unable to hear the actors. During every performance the audience had drowned out the dialogue. Unrest only died down when the play was taken off, after one week. The riots spelled the end of Synge’s career in Ireland: the Abbey Theatre decided not to risk staging his next play, The Tinker’s Wedding, his last completed work. He died in 1909.

The Playboy of the Western World therefore has some interesting resonances. It is not difficult to think of recent works where the title alone has been enough to damn them. Neither are calls for authors to be killed very uncommon. Synge, by crafting such an incendiary play, with such an incendiary title, knew he was playing with fire. Like others that came after him, he probably didn’t realize how badly he’d be burned.

Consulted:
Benson, Eugene: JM Synge (Macmillan, 1982)
Kilroy, James: The ‘Playboy’ Riots (Dolmen, 1971)

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