The Playboy of the Western World Lesson Plan

The first two sentences of Synge's preface come directly from the note he penned for Playboy's premier. With this in mind, what do you think was Synge's goal in writing the program note, and how successful was he?

While rehearsals were underway for Playboy, Synge received harsh criticism from his peers over his use of coarse language and subject matter. Presumably, Synge wrote the program note in order to ward off these criticisms from audience members once the play officially premiered. However, it's clear that this strategy was thoroughly unsuccessful: one might wonder whether Synge unknowingly invited the very criticisms he was trying to avoid by shedding light on...