The Playboy of the Western World

When a nervous young stranger stumbles into a County Mayo pub claiming he has killed his tyrannical father, the villagers greet him not with horror but with awe, and the local women compete for the attention of this sudden hero. Christy Mahon blossoms in the glow of their admiration, right up until the day his very-much-alive father turns up looking for him. Synge’s three-act comedy skewers the Irish appetite for a bold outlaw and the gap between a violent tale and a violent deed. Its frank language and mockery of rural piety sparked riots at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents one of the great comedies of the Irish stage.