Literature Network » J. M. Synge

OUTLAW THRILL IS GONE FROM `PLAYBOY'

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From: The Boston Globe
Date: 20041104
Author:Ed Siegel, Globe Staff

J. M. Synge was a remarkably prescient playwright. His plays inform the work of almost every subsequent Irish playwright, from Samuel Beckett to Martin McDonagh. And gangsta rap's got nothing on the opening of "The Playboy of the Western World," which shocked audiences with its portrayal of lower-class loutishness and adoration of the outlaw spirit.

Trouble is, the opening of "The Playboy of the Western World" at the Abbey Theatre was in 1907. Almost a century later "The Playboy of the Western World" can seem less like rap than soft rock. The Abbey production that's touring the states has its ...

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