Ithaca College

The cast of The Playboy of the Western World will include faculty members (Greg Bostwick, Dean Robinson, Marc Gomes, Theatre; Kevin Murphy, English) and students (Jahmar Ortiz, Avery Lynch, Lucia Vecchio, Evan Murphy, Eliana Hood, Hannah Thien, Audrey Lang).  Claire Gleitman (faculty, English) directed the reading; Theatre majors Daisy Rudin and Kayla Owen are the assistant director and stage manager, respectively. 

 J.M. Synge’s The Playboy Western World is one of the most controversial plays ever produced in Ireland. When it premiered in 1907 in Dublin, it provoked riots so intense that the police had to be called in to keep the crowd in order. The audience hurled catcalls and random objects at the stage, which the actors had to dodge, and their lines could barely be heard above the din. The reasons for the outrage remain a matter of debate, but many readers believe that Synge offered his contemporaries a highly critical portrait of themselves in his comedic play about a credulous village that lionizes a man who claims to have killed his father. Ireland, not yet an independent nation in 1907, had many reasons to long to strike out against patriarchal tyrants. But Playboy’s Ireland is one that dreams of revolutionary acts but finally lacks the courage of its convictions, and banishes both revolution and poetry from its door.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Claire Gleitman at gleitman@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3893. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.