The Playboy of the Western World

John Millington Synge’s ‘scandalous’ play THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD is vividly brought to screen in this 1962 film adaptation which sees some of the leading lights of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre performing alongside English actor Gary Raymond who portrays the playboy of the title.

Truth be told, most folk would be hard-pushed to find anything scandalous about this evergreen of the repertory theatre though bear in mind that the play premiered in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in the year of our Lord 1907 and - this being Catholic Ireland – republicans and nationalists alike caused riots as they deemed the play an affront to public morals… not to mention the fact it didn’t depict Ireland and the Irish from a particularly flattering viewpoint.
The story takes place on the west coast of County Mayo where we find ourselves in a tavern (if you can call it that) owned by old widower Michael James Flaherty (Liam Redmond) which he runs with his daughter Pegeen (Siobhán McKenna). As Mike and Pegeen indulge in a bit of banter with the tavern’s regulars – among them rather dim-witted Shaun Keogh (Michael O’Briain) whose attempts of wooing pretty Pegeen have so far fallen on deaf ears – a dishevelled looking young man enters and introduces himself as Christy Mahon (Gary Raymond) who comes from a village ‘not too far away’ before he casually mentions that he has killed his tyrannical father by means of driving a loy (spade) in his head. Sensing that the assembled punters, including Pegeen and her father Mike, are equally shocked and fascinated by what he has done, Christy begins to spin a tale of epic proportions, even going as far as waxing lyrical over the killing of his father. In no time the word has spread and curious onlookers pop in and out of Flaherty’s tavern to make the acquaintance with the unlikely ‘hero’ including Widow Quinn (Elspeth March). Seeing how Christy has nowhere to go, Pegeen prepares a makeshift bed for him and before you know it romance is in the air. The following morning some of the village girls drop by with presents for the stranger, like soda bread, duck eggs, cake and what have you… all of them entertaining hopes of a bit of flirtation (presumably that would have been one of the points which so outraged the Irish moralists upon the play’s premiere).

As the days pass, Pegeen and Christy grow ever more fond of one another, much to the chagrin of Shaun Keogh who sees his hopes of marrying the fiery redhead go up in smoke whilst Widow Quinn too has to acknowledge that she’s past her prime and thus her chances of finding a new partner in Christy are practically non existent. That doesn’t stop her from ‘covering’ for him when one afternoon an enraged old farmer appears out of nowhere, his blood-smeared head bandaged and looking for a young lad who he claims is his son and responsible for his horrific injury. It doesn’t take Widow Quinn long to put two and two together, however, she would rather lie to the old man than admit that Christy is cowering right behind her in a barn… Unable to find any evidence that his son is hiding in the tiny village the old man walks off and Christy spends the following weeks keeping his lie alive. Oh for the Oirish and their blarney! By now so popular and celebrated has Christy become that the villagers invite him to participate in a donkey race during a local fun fair – his ‘notoriety’ reaching ever more heights when he wins the race and he and Pegeen are now officially betrothed. Alas, the tide turns when Old Man Mahon (Niall MacGinnis) returns again, this time round managing to convince everyone that his son hasn’t killed him after all. Within minutes Christy Mahon’s ‘celebrity status’ crumbles into nothingness and Pegeen scolds him for being a boaster, a liar and a total disgrace. Hell-bent on saving face, Christy then grabs a loy, chases his father down a narrow path and finishes him off for good while the villagers and Pegeen look on in sheer horror. Christy’s deed backfires when – worried that the entire village might be implicated in this dastardly crime – the locals decide to tie him with a rope and hang him from a tree… or a wooden beam… or anything suitable they can find. And that would indeed have been the end of Christy Mahon were it not for the fact that his father survived the second attack as well, with his dumbfounded son exclaiming: “Do you really want me to kill you a third time, father?” Old Man Mahon then fetches his useless son - blood streaming from his head – and the two set off on their journey homeward while a heavy-hearted Pegeen looks on, sighing: “I’ve lost the only playboy of the western world.”

The performances are simply wonderful and true to Synge’s original, the entire dialogue is delivered in a uniquely flowery and poetic style so typical of the Irish language. Great detail has been given to the interior designs of the ‘tavern’ (half pub, half homestead) in which household utensils hang or stand next to kitschy religious artefacts and framed pictures of Jesus Christ. Anyone who has ever lived in Ireland will tell you that this was a common sight even as late as the 1990s… and in rural parts probably still is to this day.

THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD has been newly restored on Blu-ray and the release offers the following Bonus Features: Trailer, Image Gallery plus a 2021 interview with actor Gary Raymond (‘The Man Who Played the Playboy’).