Class 12 students of Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School present The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge adapted and directed by Sasha Matthewman.
The Playboy of the Western World (1907) is a raging comedy written by the ‘Irish Shakespeare’, John Millington Synge. Set in County Mayo, Ireland, at the turn of the twentieth century, the play throbs with the tensions between the English overlords and the Irish peasantry and feeds on the rising tide of rebellion against brutal colonial law.
Stranger Christy Mahon walks into a rural Shebeen bar and claims to have killed his own father. The small Catholic community is soon caught up in the romance of the daring stranger – hailing his story as a brave act of defiance against an oppressor. Girls fall at his feet and the men look to him as a true Irish hero. But as the story of the killing is retold, events take a sudden turn that show the gap between ‘a gallous deed and a squabble in your own backyard.’
Violently funny, poetic, and strangely sinister in its references to classical myth and tragedy this is a play to stir up the soul and rouse the spirit.
Wednesday 9 September | 7pm
Thursday 10 September | 7pm
Friday 11 September | 7pm
Lopdell House Theatre, Titirangi
Book your tickets here or in the school office.
Doors open 6:30pm
Refreshments available before the show, and during intermission.
Note: Seating is not allocated. Please arrive in plenty of time – latecomers will only be admitted during a suitable break in the performance.
Child/Student | $15
Adult | $20
Warning: contains scenes of drinking and dramatic (not graphic) violence. Not suitable for children under 10 years and recommended viewing age 12 plus due to complex themes.
