Introduction

Collins, Christopher

Abstract

John Millington Synge is one the most important and most influential playwrights in modern theatre. Born in 1871 in Dublin, Ireland, Synge had a professional career as a playwright that lasted just seven years before his untimely death at the age of 37. However, his direct influence on subsequent generations of playwrights is quite outstanding: Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel and Marina Carr have all publicly stated how much they are indebted to Synge. The pinnacle of his career as playwright came on 26 January 1907 when he premiered his satirical comedy The Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. 1 On that infamous evening the audience were absolutely appalled by what they saw and heard, so much so that they began causing disturbances that lasted for an almost an entire week.

Citation

Collins, C. (2016). Introduction. In J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638720

• Acceptance Date: Sep 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 15, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 18, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Series Title: Fourth wall
• Book Title: J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World
• ISBN: 9781138194694
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638720
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/817550
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/J-M-Synges-The-Playboy-of-the-Western-World/Collins/p/book/9781138194694
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World on 15 September 2016, available online: https://www.routledge.com/J-M-Synges-The-Playboy-of-the-Western-World/Collins/p/book/9781138194694.