The Playboy of the Western World

At the edge of the earth, you could be anyone. Pegeen Flaherty''s life is turned upside down when, on a normal day, a young man walks into her pub claiming that he''s killed his father. Instead of being shunned, the killer Christy Mahon becomes a local hero. The welcome murderer wins hearts and races as he beds himself into village life. That is until a second man unexpectedly arrives on the scene. John Millington Synge''s riveting story of youth and self-discovery has been celebrated for decades. This new edition was published to coincide with the National Theatre''s 2025 production with a cast that included Nicola Coughlan as Pegeen Flaherty, eanna Hardwicke as Christy Mahon and Siobhan McSweeney as Widow Quin.

About the author

John Millington Synge (1871-1909) is widely regarded as the greatest ever Irish dramatist. Born in Dublin in 1871, he trained first as a musician and composer, but after a meeting with W. B. Yeats in Paris, came to focus on literature, giving voice for the first time to those communities on the West Coast of Ireland. Capturing their dialect and energising their stories, the lives of the people of Connemara, and the Aran Islands were brought to life through his six great plays: In The Shadow of the Glen (1903), Riders to the Sea (1904), The Well of the Saints (1905), The Playboy of the Western World (1907), The Tinkers' Wedding (1908), and his unfinished mythological drama Deirdre of the Sorrows (performed posthumously in 1910); as well as his travel journal of his time off the coast of Ireland entitled simply The Aran Islands (1907).

A strong advocate and contributor to the nascent Abbey Theatre, Synge, along with Lady Gregory and W. B. Yeats, was its leading light. His premature death from Hodgkin's disease left the Irish theatre bereft of its first great genius.

Product details

• Authors: John Millington Synge, Synge John Millington
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.12.2025
• EAN: 9781350624832
• ISBN: 978-1-350-62483-2
• No. of pages: 96
• Dimensions: 128 mm x 196 mm x 14 mm
• Series: Modern Plays
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; 20th Century, DRAMA / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Playwriting, Theatre Studies, c 1914 to c 1918 (including WW1), c 1918 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Plays, Playscripts, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, 1916–1922 (Irish Revolutionary period), Classic plays / drama