Please note: The screening of The Playboy of the Western World on Saturday, June 6 at 2 pm will be presented with on-screen captions.
Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Caitríona McLaughlin directs this darkly funny tale full to the brim with secrets.
“Every woman loves a bad boy, or so the cliche goes. Here it is tested when Christy Mahon walks into a pub to confess he has killed his father with a farming tool. It’s not quite the truth but he is, to his own surprise, turned into a local celebrity. Women flock to see him and men hail him a hero.
John Millington Synge’s unromanticised comic portrayal of a farming community in the west of Ireland caused moral outrage at its 1907 premiere at Dublin’s Abbey theatre. This revival by the Abbey’s current artistic director, Caitríona McLaughlin, makes clear that it is something of a woman’s play, ahead of its time, with two female leads abjuring conservative Catholic morality to hope for something bigger than a small, scratching country existence.
Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) plays spirited barmaid Pegeen, who is dazzled enough by Christy to abandon her suitor, Shawn (Marty Rea). Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls), as Widow Quin, is more strategic and openly lascivious. Both tread a fine line between comic desire and serious inner yearnings. “It’s true all girls are fond of courage,” says Widow Quin, and Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) , as Christy, manages the transformation from geek to hero to geek again in a way that shows how little he changes, but how much those around him are willing to believe.” -Arifa Akbar, The Guardian
Through a partnership with OKC Repertory Theater, OKC Rep Members receive discounted admission to National Theatre Live screenings at OKCMOA.
Visit the box office for tickets, and learn more about OKC Rep at: https://www.okcrep.org/
