The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge directed Mark A. Rhea Photo Gallery Church Street Theater 1742 Church Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 Dupont Circle area - between 17th & 18th and Q & P Streets, N.W. Nearby Parking Garage Performances Feb 17 - Mar 19, 2005 Thur, Fri, Sat - 8 PM Sun matinees - 2 PM

In 1907, The Playboy of the Western World premiered at the Abbey Theatre, in the heart of Dublin, and instantly caused a firestorm of controversy among Irish patriots. J.M. Synge's candid yet poetic writing, which echoed the lives of peasants and fishing families he had come to know on the western coast of Ireland and the Aran Islands, struck a nerve with Irish audiences. "Synge's unromanticized, satiric treatment of the Irish peasantry -considered sacrosanct to many nationalists- and its (for the time) shocking language provoked a controversies that continued after the author's early death" (Dover Press).

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