Myth, mendacity, and murder: the National Theatre’s recent production of John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, embraces traditional Irish culture amidst a cascade of chaos following myth-making in a small country town.
Scrutinising the morality of celebrification — with prominent parallels with our modern-day world of social media fanaticism — Synge centralises the power of a myth, one that turns patricidal Christy (Éanna Hardwicke) into a figure of heroism when he is a new arrival in town.
Skilfully portrayed, Hardwicke creates the perfect smoke screen – indiscernible to the other characters, and easily identifiable as bizarre to the audience. He characterises Christy physically as always a little hunched and uneven, almost animalistic in his unnatural body movements: a stuttering, odd, and strangely compelling ‘playboy.’
Christy himself is caught up in every aspect of his myths, especially when he wins the affections of tempestuous, and ultimately fickle, Pegeen (Nicola Coughlan), sly and sassy Widow Quinn (Siobhán McSweeney), and a group of women from the town. Particularly the latter imbue the production with unbounded energy, fuelled by their fervent fascination — a welcome change of pace after a relatively wordy opening, which is a little fraught with troubles in managing Synge’s Hiberno-English. Thick Irish accents combined with Gaelic sentence formation mean that some of the complex language gets lost, and, especially in opening scenes, the audience feels one step behind.
McLaughlin’s directorial prowess shines as the production never forgets a key character: Ireland. She is omnipresent in the inclusion of Strawboys in the live music, in Katie Davenport’s use of Celtic symbols in costume design and, of course, in the story-telling tradition.
Fans of small-town-drama, Tarantino-esque displays of violence, or the works of Martin McDonagh should bear witness to the exciting theatrical experience that is The Playboy of the Western World, even if the production doesn’t completely deliver on offering meaning behind the madness.
The Playboy of the Western World is in cinemas now with National Theatre Live.
Photo by Marc Brenner, courtesy of the National Theatre Live.