A crucial detail overlooked in the explanation of the Playboy Riots is the importance of the word “shift” on the ensuing events.
J.M. Synge was/is part of the Irish Literary Revival, a nationalist art movement that sought to instill pride in being Irish via positive portrayals in the arts. Yeats and Lady Gregory were part of it, so was Oscar Wilde to a lesser extent.
The premise behind the movement is thus:
The Irish had seen countless laws enacted against them by Britain (teaching Irish history and speaking the Irish language were outlawed). Irishmen were constantly portrayed in pro-British publications/art/whatever as deformed, sick, weak. The Irish women in particular, were often portrayed as sluts or hags. The writers of the Irish Literary Revival wanted to present more positive images so they set about “rediscovering” lost Irish myths of Fergus and Dierdre, as well as writing about Irish heritage, such as the Aran Islands, the most “Irish” part of Ireland, which, yes, was poor and not sophisticated but was seen as the last few places British influence hadn’t reached.
So Synge sets his play in the Western Islands, among peasants and introduces themes of oral tales and the art of storytelling, which are a strong cultural tradition in Ireland. Ok, fine, so what’s the ruckus about?
Our hero Christy says something about not wanting any woman but Pegeen even if all the daughters of Ireland were lined up before him in thier shifts. Or something like that. People had gotten wind of the offending word early on; rumors flew about before the first performance and the crowd was riled for just about anything to happen. When, at the first performance, the word was said, the crowd, as reported, acted up. They were appalled that a writer they considered on their side would portray Irish women in a way they considered demeaning (namely, an Irish writer should not imply that Irish women were sexual). So they were rioted, called Synge a traitor and never bothered to really understand or hear the play. So it goes.
While Synge’s play does not demean Irish women, and has since been recognized as a great Irish play, the riots surrounding its first performances were the result of long simmering anger, the result more of British-Irish history than one mere play. Like the LA Riots, the Watts Riots and many others, the riots themselves might seem to be triggered by seemingly small events but they are usually the result of years of frustration.
(I’m not defending riots in any way, and I’m not referring to non-sporting event riots. But I wanted to clarify details on the Playboy Riots.)
