Druid has had Synge’s work as part of its repertoire in 1975—1977, 1982—1987, and 2004—2009 and has never strayed too far from including Synge in its plans. And as if to amplify Tyrone Guthrie, the great theatre director, (‘directing is nine-tenths casting’), Garry Hynes has acknowledged the importance of the cast for her rediscovery of Synge in each new production. In this light, Druid’s casting of Synge’s plays, and in particular of The Playboy of the Western World, offers a unique window into its development across the years in ways seldom afforded a theatre company.

The Playboy of 1975 opened on 3rd July and in addition to it being an instant success, with up to 200 people attending each night at Galway’s Jesuit Hall, it was marked by each of the company’s founding members holding down central roles, both on and off-stage. Mick Lally and Marie Mullen played opposite each other as Christopher Mahon and Pegeen Mike, while also taking on stage-management and costume design respectively. Garry Hynes directed, designed lights and, for a limited time, played Sara Tansey.

Having been struck by the power of Synge’s work in this first encounter, and resolving to return to it at the earliest opportunity, the following year Druid presented The Glens of Rathvanna, a programme that included adaptations from Synge’s prose, The Tinker’s Wedding and The Shadow of the Glen. In 1977, another production of Playboy was presented in a working pub in Galway – Flaherty’s – with real turf fire bringing an air of authenticity (if somewhat hazy) to the performance. Here Marie Mullen would take on for the first time the role of the Widow Quin, Sean McGinley, in only his second role for the company, would take on Shawn Keogh, while Mick Lally reprised his role as Christy Mahon.

The Playboy of 1982 did a great deal to revitalise Synge for Irish and international audiences, presenting the play’s sexuality and violence with an unflinching realism. The casting contributed immeasurably to the impact, with Marie Mullen in particular restoring to the Widow Quin (‘a woman of about thirty’ as Synge specifies) her sexual starkness and vitality, and hence her true poignancy. The ensemble was seen to come into its own in this production, with Maelíosa Stafford as Christy Mahon, Séan McGinley as Shawn Keogh, Mick Lally as Old Mahon and the newcomer Bríd Brennan as Pegeen Mike. Indeed among the strengths of the casting was the confidence it reflected in Druid to discover young actors, a confidence that is pardoxically rooted in the ensemble and remains true of the company today.

Revived throughout the 1980s, this production was groundbreaking in many ways. It firmly established Druid’s national and international reputation, picking up a host of awards during visits to Edinburgh, London, New York, and Sydney. It also toured throughout Ireland, including a celebrated visit to each of the three Aran Islands (off the west coast of Ireland), showing as nothing else could how Druid had pioneered the development of a professional regional theatre in Ireland.

Druid’s decision to stage all of Synge’s works together – a task never before attempted – was first mooted in the late 1990s, and had been eagerly anticipated throughout the early years of the millennium. Rising Irish film-stars Cillian Murphy and Anne-Marie Duff took on the roles of Christy and Pegeen in the first DruidSynge performance – a 2004 Playboy, which toured to Geesala, Co Mayo, the Aran Islands, and Dún Chaoin in West Kerry, while also traveling to Castlebar, Ennis, Tralee, and Dublin. In March 2005, Druid brought a new and wholly reworked Playboy to the Perth Arts Festival in Western Australia, with Aaron Monaghan taking over the role of Christy. Productions of The Tinker’s Wedding and The Well of The Saints appeared in 2004, touring to the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Wicklow Glens and to Donegal. Druid was producing Well of the Saints for the first time and, it is notable that Marie Mullen and Mick Lally had returned to take on the central roles of Mary and Martin Doul.

On May 1st, 2005 an ensemble of 19 actors came together for rehearsals and emerged on July 16th to première DruidSynge as a single, day-long event.

DruidSynge gave us to know, if proof were needed, of Marie Mullen’s stature as one of the great stage actresses of our time. She took on five major roles across the plays and gave interpretations to compare with the greatest that each role had known. Eamon Morrissey’s performances in four roles gave notice of his unrivalled command of comic, sardonic, aggrieved and tragic registers in the roles of the Priest, Martin Doul, Dan Burke and Old Mahon. And Aaron Monaghan emerged as among the most impressive and versatile young actors of his generation with his own performances in five major roles including a celebrated Christy Mahon in Playboy.

DruidSynge consolidated Druid’s reputation with audiences throughout the English-speaking world, with performances in Dublin and Edinburgh that same year, Minneapolis and New York the following year, tours for Playboy to Tokyo (2007), throughout the US (where it was partnered by Shadow of the Glen) (2008) and a tour of Playboy throughout the UK (2009).

When reflecting on the performances of DruidSynge, however, pride of place will go to those on Inis Meáin in early Spetember 2005, where locals and visitors fused real and imaginary landscapes, stage action and folk memory, peformance and reality, into an experience to compare only with that of Playboy on the island twenty-three years previously.

Documentation of previous Druid productions of Synge has been generated both privately within Druid, and in the public domain. A televised version of the stage production of Playboy was recorded at the Donmar Warehouse in 1985, while a 1982 RTÉ documentary captures the visit of Playboy to Inis Meáin. In 2007, the DVD box set of DruidSynge, filmed by RTE and Wildfire, was released and is available for purchase here.

The Druid Story essays were written by Thomas Conway, currently Literary Manager with Druid.