The Playboy Of The Western World - John M. Synge

claires friend

Just a little QUestion I am preparing my Literary Genre question for My leaving Certificate, and am LOST as to what i can use for the structure of This play

so far i have;

its a play
3 acts based around characters???


I dont want to mention timespan/setting/chronology/character creation/creation of tension/use of fantasy in this paragraph can u help me???

Scarinae

Some general points to bear in mind when discussingdrama as a genre:
- Although a play exists in text from, the text is really just a starting point for a live performance
- What ideas does the director have about the play?
- Elements such as music, lighting, the quality of the acting and the responsiveness of the audience need to be considered

The play is a comedy in three acts. the action of the play takes place over a period of about twenty-four hours. The storyline is linear; the events of the drama unfold in chronological order. Although it is described by Synge as a comedy, it manages to be quite satirical in a manner that was not to everyone's taste in 1907 when it was first performed. In fact, it provoked riots in the theatre; police arrested members of the audience; the newspapers wrote about it extensively. One of the reasons for its controversial impact was that it was an attempt to subvert an existing theatrical genre. Popular theatre at the time abounded in conventional representations of Ireland as a country peopled by winsome colleens and sturdy broths of boys. The stage Irishman, a roguish but charming individual, was essentially the creation of the playwright Dion Boucicault, author of The Shaughraun and other melodramas. So powerful was this stereotype that its various mutations went on to enjoy huge success in the cinema (The Quiet Man), television (The Irish R.M.) and, even today, a slightly more urbane version can still be detected in the radio persona of Terry Wogan. Synge, however, knew the ordinary people intimately. Long spells in Wicklow and on the Aran Islands had given him an unrivalled knowledge of their way of life and of the Irish language. He wanted to 'hold up the mirror to nature' and depict a more realistic version of Ireland than that available in the plays of Boucicault. Paradoxically, he did this by means of an implausible story about a man who believes he has killed his father being welcomed as a hero and fniding employment as a minder for the daughter of a shebeen owner. The play has a serious purpose and presents in a memorable and moving way the plight of two lonely people searching for happiness.

Does that help at all?

claires friend

Yes thanks man!

beller b

Ah happy memories of my leaving...went to see that in the abbey.. Pegeen Mike was a fine thine!!!