The Playboy of the Western World

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

J.M. Synge's extraordinary play about a young man on the run, and his unexpected elevation to folk hero.

A stranger, Christy Mahon, arrives in a village bar in County Mayo in the West of Ireland, claiming to have killed his father. The locals are impressed – some can even directly relate to the deed – and Christy is lauded as a folk hero. He can't believe his luck, and confidently pursues the affections of the barmaid Pegeen, until the arrival of his not-so-dead father takes the winds out of Christy's sails...

The Playboy of the Western World was first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in January 1907, causing riots across the city.

This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is introduced by Margaret Llewllyn Jones.