Synge with Yeats: The Living and the Dead by J.M. Synge and W.B. Yeats directed by Mark A. Rhea October 19-November 12, 2000 Mount Olivet Church 1500 North Glebe Road, Arlington, Virginia Riders to the Sea: In a cottage kitchen on the Aran Islands a woman awaits the news of her son's fate to the sea. Breathlessly poetic, devastatingly lyrical, J.M. Synge's masterpiece became the first to explore the elegant prose of these struggling people. Now considered to be the quintessential model of the one act play, it still haunts us today with the power that the dead hold over the living. In the Shadow of the Glen: Synge wrote, 'There are three shadowy countries that are never forgotten in Wicklow-America, the Union and the Madhouse'. Set in the hills south of Dublin, this play alludes to them all, as an old man feigns dead to catch his wife in an affair. Cathleen Ni Hoolihan: On the eve of his wedding day, young Michael must decide the future that lay before him, and which path to it he will take. Written in 1902, Yeats' play answered the questions of the day, of Irish Independence, and in the end at what cost might it be found. Purgatory: Yeats' play is a storm cloud of words, raining poetry down. Finding meaning in loss, and memory in darkness, it is a precursor to the raw word play of Dylan Thomas. Performance Reviews Cast and Crew Photographs Directions Press Release