The Playboy of the Western World

When The Playboy of the Western World first premiered at the Abbey Theatre on January 26, 1907, the play caused an outburst of riots from audience members. The Irish patrons felt that the play was an insult to public morals and the people of Ireland. The play’s comedic portrayal of patricide shocked audiences of the time, and just as scandalous was the mention of women in their “shifts” (underwear). The line is delivered by Christy as he declares his love for Pegeen: “It’s Pegeen I’m seeking only, and what’d I care if you brought me a drift of chosen females, standing in their shifts itself, maybe, from this place to the Eastern World?” (75). Audiences found the depiction of women in their underwear—as well as of women fawning over a murderer—as slanderous against Irish women. The riots lasted a week in Dublin, prompting Synge’s contemporary, W.B. Yeats, to tell audiences: “You have disgraced yourselves again. Is this to be an ever-recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?” (“About the Abbey.” Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 2022). Audiences did not heed Yeats’s warning. Four years later, riots occurred at the American premiere of the play in New York City.