L2L The Playboy of the Western World

The Playboy of the Western World

J. M. Synge

In the early 1900s, audiences on both sides of the “pond” didn’t take kindly to J. M. Synge’s lyrical stage comedy The Playboy of the Western World — protesting with produce and worse. When it premiered in 1907 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, middle-class attendees thought Synge was making fun of the people and cultures of the Aran Islands or, worse, recreating long-held English stereotypes and caricatures. Yet the play and Synge’s love of his countrymen’s “everyday language” have since been held as works of art. This week, Leigh, P. T., and Dr. C discuss the common literary theme of “killing one’s father” and how this can be both insightful and hilarious.