A
TALE of two Abbey Theatres comes to St Albans next week when the Company of
Ten puts on The Playboy of the Western World. A
TALE of two Abbey Theatres comes to St Albans next week when the Company of
Ten puts on The Playboy of the Western World.
For the J. M. Synge masterpiece was first produced at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1907 where it was greeted with riots which had to be quelled by dozens of policemen.
Such excitement is unlikely to greet the Company of Ten production which is being performed nearly a century later.
But it prompted enterprising stage manager John Pyke to set up a dialogue with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin to ensure the settings are as authentic as possible.
E-mails and phone calls between the two theatres have resulted in a faithful evocation of the play's setting - a shebeen on the wild remote Mayo coast where strangers are a rarity and a glass of illicit poteen one of the very few comforts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the Abbey Theatre has had a call from Donegal for some seats to see the play which opens tomorrow (Friday 19 November) and runs until November 27.
Tickets are available from the Abbey Theatre box office on 01727 857861.
© Herts Advertiser, November 2004. Reproduced by permission