The Playboy of the Western World—A New Version

Download or read book The Playboy of the Western World—A New Version written by Bisi Adigun and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle’s centenary adaption of J. M. Synge’s classic The Playboy of the Western World had a sold-out run when it was produced at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 2007 and was brought back by popular demand in 2008. The new version is set in a contemporary Dublin pub and features the character of a Nigerian asylum-seeker in the lead role. Under the coauthorship of Bisi Adigun, artistic director of Arambe Productions—Ireland’s first African theater company—and best-selling, Booker Prize–winning novelist Roddy Doyle, the play engages with issues of race and immigration in modern Ireland and, when first released, aimed to be a model for intercultural collaboration. This critical edition features the full text of the play, published for the first time, along with a collection of essays exploring the play’s themes, cultural significance, critical reception, and the legal case that cut short its successful production run. Though the play was first produced over a decade ago, the topic of migration has only increased in its global importance over that time, and this adaptation of Playboy remains a popular touchstone among scholars of Irish theater and immigration.