There are not many times in the history of drama and literature that a work of art causes riots in the streets and in public buildings, but one of those times, and it was a very stirring and worrying event, was in Dublin, and at the very heart of what we now think of as the Irish Literary Renaissance. It had the poet Yeats shouting at the audience and playwright John Synge suffering all kinds of soul-searching stress and unease as his masterpiece seemed to split society apart.
Literature in Ireland has always had that tendency to be political and therefore to be misunderstood; in a country which has had so many invaders, so many internal divisions and such extreme struggles over ideas as well as over land and property, it comes as no surprise to learn that its writers can very easily be defined as somehow falling short of the mark. But in the case of John Synge and his play, The Playboy of the Western World, on the surface it seems bizarre that there should have been such hatred and resentment in the public. It is a play in which a son murders a father, or thinks he has, and there is a certain depiction of the West of Ireland peasantry that can be read as highly critical. Yet at the basis of Synge’s art there is his fascination with folklore, rural communities and with the language and dialect of parts of the world which have not seen much social change.
To make matters worse, the trouble happened at the Abbey Theatre in Marlborough Street, Dublin. As I write this in 2007, The Playboy of the Western World is being performed at that very theatre; there are no riots and no dissent. But the Ireland of 1907 was a very different place, with many more uncertainties, sensitivities and doubts about itself and its direction.