The Playboy of the Western World

The Playboy of the Western World – City Lit Theatre

At a pub in County Mayo, Ireland in 1907, a young man stumbles and says that he has just killed his father with a shovel. After telling his story, he instantly becomes a local celebrity, with the town celebrating his bravery in standing up to his horrible father. Things get more complicated with the father, apparently only injured, shows up looking for him.

The play, by Irish playwright John Millington Synge, premiered in 1907 to protests by Irish nationalists objecting to how the Irish were portrayed. The play was written, and is performed here, in an Irish dialect. I have to commend the cast for their commitment. I don’t think I heard an accent slip the whole time. On the other hand, it did make it a little difficult to follow the play at times. The first half of the show is a lot of setting up of stakes, and a combination of the language and the century between the writer and the audience made that a bit difficult to keep up with at points. By the time the action kicks into high gear in the second, my sense of immersion was stronger.

The basic story of an apparent murderer achieving a perverse celebrity is a fun one. You’re talking to a man whose all time favorite musical is Chicago, so I’m certainly on board with lampooning polite society by showing what they really value. For me, though the comedic potential never quite gelled. The most the story evoked from me was a warm chuckle. I think that may be as much due to the language barrier as anything, but still, the comedic potential of the story didn’t really click for me.

The cast is great, up and down the line. Joshua Servantez as Christy Mahon, the young man at the center of the drama, does a great job balancing his fear at being caught with his love of the attention. Adam Bitterman as his not-quite-dead father did fantastic work with the physical comedy of the part. Brenda Wlazlo as a local scheming widow was another highlight for me.

I feel a little bad that I didn’t respond to this story more forcefully. This show is certainly fully realized. The actors are great. The set design is great. There’s even a live harpist playing music under the action. The actors clearly put a great deal of time into the accent work, and that work succeeded. So why don’t the parts combine into a show that I liked more? I don’t think it’s just the difficulty following along with the plot at the top of the show, though that is part of it. For me, the show spent a lot of energy faithfully recreating the time and place of the story, and I think that dedication flattened the farce at work. To sell a story about a confessed murdered finding adoration rather than a swift arrest at the hands of a group of strangers requires a certain suspension of disbelief. I don’t think the show quite achieved that heightened reality.

Still, on the strength of the acting, I think there is something to recommend the show, and as a piece of Irish literary history, I’m certainly glad I saw it. The finished product didn’t grab me the way I hoped it might, but I certainly can’t deny that the show was thoroughly realized by a talented and dedicated company.

Somewhat Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented July 1 – August 14 by CityLit Theatre at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased here.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.