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Lennox Robinson and Synge's Playboy (1911-1930): Two Decades of American Cultural GrowthAuthor(s): Ida G. EversonSource: The New England Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Mar., 1971), pp. 3-21Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/364940.

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THENEW ENGLANDQA4RTERLY

MARCH 1971LENNOX ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY

(1911-1930): TWO DECADES OF AMERICANCULTURAL GROWTHIDA G. EVERSON

BETWEEN 1911, whenLennox Robinson and hisAbbeyPlayers irstroduced ynge's Playboy nAmerica,' nd1930,whenherevivedt atAmherst ith n all-Americanast,a greatchangehad takenplace in the attitudeofAmericanaudiencestoward heplaysof the rishLiteraryRenaissance.In twodecades, drama thathad been booed and hissed nBostonand New York, nd had been termedmmoral,nde-cent, nd libidinous n Philadelphia,had won itswayto en-thusiasticcceptance n thestageof a conservative ew En-glandcollege.What hadwroughthechange?A definitivenswer o thisquestionwouldruntobook-lengthroportions. ut excerpts

1The Boston performancewas not the first ime that The Playboy wasproduced in America.See JamesO'Donnell Bennett, The Playboyof theWest-ern World for the First Time in America (The Sunday Record-Herald,Chicago,April 11, 19gog).The first erformance f The Playboy in Americawas givenon Tuesday, April 13,at the Illinois Theater, Chicago,byHart Con-way'sstudents n the School ofActingof the AmericanConservatory f Music.This performancewas by a nonprofessional ompanyand seems to have madelittlestir.The reporter eferred o theactingas extremely reditable. Photo-statcopyof theChicagoRecord-Herald,April 14,19gog, indlyprovidedbyMr.William Donovan, of the Chicago Public LibraryNewspaper Service,togetherwith a letter o theauthor,February19,1968).3

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4 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYfrom Mr. Robinson's own perceptivewritingson the subject,togetherwitha considerationof the circumstances n whichheproduced the play in 1911 and again in 1930, throwconsider-able light on a significantperiod in the development of theAmerican dramatic consciousness.The storyof the stormyreception accorded The PlayboyoftheWesternWorld, when it was produced in New York aspartof therepertoireoftheAbbey's first merican tour (191 1-1912) is too well known to need detailed repetition.2 ufficetto saythat theNew York audiences-especially their rish con-tingents-saw in The Playboy such a defamation of theIrish character that theirangryprotestsmade it necessaryforthe whole of the first ct to be repeated. Arthur Sinclair, agifted actor of the early Abbey Company, was pelted withpotatoeswhen he made his firstappearance in theplay in NewYork. On that occasion, Robinson, a young man of twenty-five,took it upon himself,as Director of the Company, tothrowout some of theoffenders odily fromthe theater.3Thedisturbance reached a climax in Philadelphia, where thewhole Company was arrested.4Upon a telephone call fromLady Gregory,however,JohnQuinn,5 a New York lawyer and a friend of Yeats, left hisoffice nd appeared unexpectedly in the Philadelphia court-room. The dramaticevent, wroteLady Gregory n Our IrishTheatre, was the arrival of Quinn while a witness was beingexamined. Quinn's experthandling of the situation broughta victory or the Irishplayers, nd the case was dismissed a fewdays later. The Company are in a stateof fury, Lady Greg-

2 Lennox Robinson, reland's Abbey Theatre (London, 1951); see also Ida G.Everson, Young Lennox Robinson and the Abbey Theatre's First AmericanTour (1911-1912) in Modern Drama (May, 1966),74-89, nd Michael J.O'Neill,Lennox Robinson (New York,1964),65-3See Robinson, Ireland's Abbey Theatre,96-97; also his Homage to Amer-ica, (Iv, New York),Aug. 3o, 1956,2. This is the last of a series of four talksgivenover Radio Eireann,typescriptopies of which wereprovided by the lateMr. FrancisMacManus, ofRadio Eireann.4 See Lady Gregory, ur Irish Theatre,225.5 For a full-length tudyof John Quinn, see Benjamin L. Reid, The ManfromNew York;JohnQuinn and His Friends New York,1968).


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 5ory dds, butthey doreJohnQuinn,andhis name willpassinto folklore... . He spoke splendidly,with fireand fullknowledge. ou will see what he said about thewitnessesntheNorthAmerican ndeven Robinson ayshe came ike anangel'. 6Therewere few ther riendlyeactions othe rishplays,but forthemostpart, heplays, heactors, nd theircoura-geousyoungdirectormetwithviolent buse in 1911.AsRob-inson hasmodestly ointedout,without hehighqualityoftheplaysthemselvesnd thesincere nd convincingworkofthe actors,he could have done littleto win friends mongthose arlyhostile udiences.Robinsondid not accompany heAbbeyPlayerson theirsecond ourof1912,but he waswith hem gainasdirectorn1913 and 1914.When this ast tour lostmoney, nd LadyGregoryriticized im formismanagementnd blamedhimfor tsfailure, e severed isconnectionwith heCompanynJune,1914.His nextmovewas to try o enliston theside oftheAllies,but hewasrejected ecauseofnearsightedness.heplanoftheCompany omakean annual touroftheStateswasthwartedyWorld War I. Then came the rish nsurrectionof1916,duringwhichperiodhewatched heAbbeyTheatrestruggle or xistence gainstgreat dds.In 1919,LadyGreg-ory ndYeats,recognizinghevalueofhis eadership,nd re-grettingheir arliercensureofhim, nvitedhim to returnas Managerand Producer, positionwhich he readilyac-cepted.His affectionsad neverbeen wholly lienatedfromtheAbbeyCompany.He was, n fact, xceptforbrief nter-vals, o be directlyrindirectlyonnectedwith heAbbeyforfifty ears-fromOctober,19o8, when it producedhis firstplay,The ClancyName-until his death n October,1958.After n activebut unremunerativeareer 1919-1928),nEngland and Ireland,as playwright,roducer, nd editor,Robinson feltthatthe time was ripe foranotherAmericanvisit.He did not take thePlayerswithhim thistime,but ar-

6 Gregory, 29, 231.


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6 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYranged a private lecture tour,which was to last fromOctober19, 1928,until January,1929, and would take him fromNewYork to Chicago.A passage in Curtain Up hintsthatLady Gregory'scriticismstillrankled:

It wasin theheight fthe nflated imes nd European lecturerscouldearngoodmoney. didnot earn a greatdeal, wasone ofthesmallerfry, ut forthe first ime n theStates reallyenjoyedmy-self.No theatre r companyofplayerswas dependenton me,ifImade mistakes o one paid the costbutmyself....For themostpart,Robinson's lectures on this nformaltourwere well received. The bitter opposition which he and hisplayershad encountered in 1911had practicallyvanished. TheTroubles in the homeland had brought perspective. Theestablishmentof the Irish Republic in 1925 made it less im-perativethattheimage of thestageIrishmanbe keptfreeof alltracesof impurity.The battle forpolitical freedom was beingwon,and there was a whole newgenerationofIrish-Americansin the theateraudiences. Education had made its impact, too,an impactdifficulto estimate n termsofinfluenceon the cul-turalmaturity ftheaudiences.In thefirstquarterofthecentury, ramaticson college cam-puses had gained such momentum that Robinson was able towrite of this new generation of 1928: Chauncy Alcott andBoucicault meant nothing to them,instead theyrejoiced andtookpride in Synge,Yeats, Murray,8Gregoryand O'Casey. 'He was keenlysensitiveto theleavening influenceofAmeri-can professorswho sympathizedwith the new movement. InCurtain Up he acknowledgedhis debt to them:MostAmericanuniversitiesnd collegesconsiderthedramainall itsaspects, lay-writing,roduction, cting, cene-designing,obe a subjectas seriousas mathematics r medicineand a studentcan take it. Such collegeshave theirtheatres,whichexist not7Robinson, Curtain Up (London, 1947), 147-148.Permission to quote thispassage was generouslygivenbyMichael Joseph,Ltd., the publisher.8T. C. Murray 1873-1959), uthor ofBirthright, eserves obe betterknown.9Robinson, reland's Abbey Theatre,98.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 7solelyforthe sake of amusementnor for one performance achterm fCharley'sAuntor The MerchantofVenicebut as a work-shopwherethestudentswill be taught o act,to make and paintscenery, o study ighting, ven to writeplays.When we visitedBoston n 1911GeorgeBaker hadhisplay-writinglassatHarvardandwasmuchscoffedtbyfellow rofessorsnd thepublicbutthelaughwas withhimwhena few easons ater thethreebiggest uc-cesses n Broadwayweretheworkof hispupils.10

Not onlydid Robinson sensegreateroriginality n dramaticproductivity-a kind of coming of age of American playwrit-ing-but an improvement n tasteas well:

The Broadway uccessesn 1911had been mostly opiesof En-glish or Frenchdrawing-roomlays.Now all thatwas changed.There might,ndeed,be drawing-roomlaysbut their tmospherewas ParkAvenue,notMayfair.And,moresignificant, ostoftheplayscould have occurrednowhere lse than in Americaand forthisfact, think, ur visitsyearsbeforewerelargelyresponsible.Our Irishplayshad taughtyoungAmericanplaywrightshattherewasAmericanmaterial ying eadyto theirhands,materialwhichwas germaneto American oil and to no other.Syngeand LadyGregory, . C. Murrayand manyanother rish playwright adshownthem how fromthe lives of humble people, tragedies,problem-plays,nd comediesmight e shaped.Had notSyngewrit-tenthegreatestne-act ragedyn themodern heatre aking s hischaracters oorfisherfolkn a little ottage n theWest of reland?Had not Lady Gregorymade high comedy-notfarce-out of abutcherand a postmistressnd a group of village characters?YoungAmericawas notslowto catch the dea. The Negrobecamea subject, o did thetoughChicagonewspaperman,and theKen-tuckymountain man and thelonelyfarmer'swife n theMiddleWest. 1

toCurtain up, 150. See also Barrett H. Clark, Eugene O'Neill (New York,1947).When ClarkaskedJ.V. A. Weaver,O'Neill's classmate,what O'Neill hadto say about Baker'scourse in play-writing, e answered: Well, not much outof theactual classwork tself....The plays I wrote forhim wererotten.... Yes,I did geta greatdeal fromBaker-personally. He encouragedme,made me feelit was worth while going ahead. My personal associationwith him meant thedevil of a lot to me at that time, 27-28.Reprinted by permissionof the pub-lisher,Dover Publications,New York.11Curtain Up, 153-


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8 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYPerhaps Robinson's affection orhis actors,his high regardfor their talents, and his enthusiasm for the realistic playswhich Irish authorswere writingcaused him to overestimatetheir nfluenceon Americanplaywrights, ut Eugene O'Neill'stestimony s convincing: It was seeing the Irish players...he wrote, that gave me a glimpse of my opportunity... Iwentto see everything hattheydid. 12Since his lecture tour of 1928-1929 took him as far west asChicago, Robinson was now in a position to note new trendsin the literature of the Middle West-trends otherthan thoseconnected with the theater,and he was able to contrastthesewith what was going on in New England during the sameperiod:When Boston was issuinga new annotated edition of Long-fellow,Chicagowas publishing The Little Review '3 editedbyan impecuniousyoungwoman called MargaretAnderson.14 heyoungest,mostadvanced writersn the States wereglad to con-tribute o it.When it moved tself romChicago to NewYorkthefirsthapters fJamesJoyce's Ulysses appeared in itspages. Intheearlyyearsofthecentury rankNorris n his powerfulnovelThe Pit wasshowing p thegrainracket n his native ity, ptonSinclairdid the samething bout thestockyardsn The JungleandTheodore Dreiserwaswriting ispitilessnovels boutmiddle-class,middle-westAmerican life. As forpoetry,Harriet Monro[sic]-a poet herself-hadhermagazine Poetry n whichyoung

T. S. Eliot, RobertFrost,Ezra Pound, Vachell [sic]Lindsey [sic]and Carl Sandburgfound theirfirsteaders.Their poetry hockedtheconservativechool:Carl Sandburgdefiantlyetorted: Here'sthedifferenceetweenus and Dante. He wrote a lot about Helland never aw theplace. We'rewriting bout Chicago after ook-ingthetownover. 1512Arthur nd Barbara Gelb, O'Neill (New York,1962),172.13This was a quarterly ournal of artsand letters. he special theaternum-ber (Winter, 1926) carried an article by Otto Kahn entitled The AmericanStage: Reflections f an Amateur, n whichhe observed that The sap is run-ningstrong n the treeofAmericandramaticart.14See MargaretAnderson,My ThirtyYears,An Autobiography New York,1930),forcopyofgalleyproofs f twopages of Ulysses orrectedbyJamesJoyce(between215 and 216).15Robinson, Homage toAmerica, ni,2-3 (Chicago),Aug. 16, 1956.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 9This lecture tour of 1928-1929 brought rewarding experi-ences.When Robinsonwas nNew York he madethe mostof

an opportunityocall uponOttoKahn,Americanmillionaireandpatron fthearts,who waseasilypersuaded oguaranteea thousand oundsagainst ossible osson a projected ouroftheAbbeyPlayers.'To the rishplaywright,nother articularlyratifyinge-sultofthetourwasa suggestionromMr.CurtisCanfield, ftheAmherst aculty,hathe visit he NewEnglandcollegeasguest-producero assist heMasquers n theirproduction fSynge's Playboy ftheWesternWorld.When Robinsonarrived n thecampus n May, 193o,hecame alone. His players ad notbeen inAmerica ince1914.This performance ould be a testing ime. His lecture ourhadconvinced imthat heplay'sreceptionwouldbewarmerthan hatwhichhadgreetedt ntheharrowingarly ays, uthe musthave had somemisgivingswhenhe facedthe newgroupofactors, or herewereno familiar aces mongthem-no SaraAllgood,no Marie Nic Shiublaigh, o Arthur inclair.AlthoughRobinsonwas now forty-five,nd knownon bothsidesoftheAtlantic sa versatilemanof etters,1Tewasstillvery hyman.'8The college newspaper, The AmherstStudent, of May 15,hailed himas oneofthemost minentrishdramatistsfthepresent ay, ndfeatured summaryfthe ntroductoryec-turewhich, ccording ohislong-establishedustom, e gavea weekbefore heproduction pened.His subjectwas TheAbbeyTheatre. Irelandhad neverhad anyreal dramatists

16This was the ong tour of1931which lasted for ix months nd was an al-most unbrokensuccess.West to Vancouver,South to New Orleans, twenty-sixof theUnited States werevisited Robinson,Ireland's Abbey Theatre, 127).17He was also one of the Directorsof the Abbey Company, the author ofseveralplays popular withDublin audiences,and the editor ofA Golden Trea-suryof rishPlays. He had conductedtheweeklydrama column of the LondonObserver 1924-1925), nd,with Yeats he had helped Ninette de Valois establishherschoolofBallet,at thePeacockTheatre,an adjunct of theAbbeyin Dublin.

18 An ingrainedshyness emainedto haunt Robinson nearlyall of his life,and thischaracteristic aused some to considerhim eitherregrettably upercil-ious or irritatinglyloof. Yet, he tried to overcomehis shynessbecause he wasveryfond ofpeople and of theircompany O'Neill, Lennox Robinson, 25).


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10 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYof her own, he maintained, as Goldsmith, Sheridan andCongreve were Irish only in birth. Yeats, Lady Gregory,Ed-wardMartyn, hese were the names thatstood out-names thatfiredhis imagination, forthese three,he said, had, in recentyearsand through manyhardships worked tirelesslywithoutpay to carryout their deal ... . Soon manynative people be-came interested nd wroteplaysforthe theater. t was now nolongernecessary o depend upon English playwrights. nsteadofbeing customaryheroic or historicaldramas,theytook on atrulyIrish aspect. Another new tendencywas the use of thepeasant's speech in a serious way.19Thus Robinson preparedtheaudience to appreciate Synge'sspecial contributionto newdevelopmentsof theform.The casthad been chosen, and therehearsals,under the di-rection of Mr. Canfield, had already been under way for sixweeks. It would be ofinterest o know ust how Mr. Robinsonapproached thisnew venture,forthe successof the Playboyon thisoccasion,musthave meanta greatdeal tohim. It wouldbe his firstattemptto produce the play in America since thepainful experiencesof 1911. But it has been difficult o recon-struct nything f what went on during therehearsals.Impres-sionsfade,and memoryplaystricks.Harriet Whicher, who took the part of the Widow Quin,wrote:

Even after hreeweeksof attempted eminiscence, have beenunable torecallanything bout Mr.Robinson'spart n the direc-tion oftheplay.He was at therehearsals, ertainly, ut Mr. Can-fielddid all the actual directing. ince Lennox Robinson stayedat theCanfields', e undoubtedly aveMr. Canfield he benefit fhis experience,but the actorsneverhad any directadvice fromhim. think hatonlyMr.Canfield an tellyouhowmuchhe con-tributed. remember hat Mr. Robinsonhad nothingto do withthecasting ftheplay.He was alwayscharming, ncouraging, nd humorously om-19The Amherst tudent,May 15,1930,1,4. While he was at Amherst,Robin-son spoke also at Mount Holyoke and at Smith.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 11plimentaryn hisconversations ith themembers f the cast.ButI amsure he left hedirecting o Mr.Canfield.20Likewise, Ralph C. McGoun, a younginstructor t Amherstin 1930, and technical directorof the Masquers' production,was unable tohelp torecreatethe scene ofthe rehearsals. It isdifficult o recall details thatfarback, he wrote, but I thinkCurtis Canfield directed the play with assistance during thelastrehearsals fromMr. Robinson.' 21

Professor Canfield was much more definite n his recollec-tion:Yes, brought ennox Robinsonoverhere n thespring f1930[he wrote]to directtheAmherstMasquers' productionof ThePlayboy. .. Lennoxwaswonderful s ourdirector,nd he stagedtheplay n muchthe amewayas itwas done at theAbbey.He wasourhouseguestforthe rehearsalperiod and endeared himself othe cast while charmingthe whole community.... The perfor-mancewasan extraordinaryuccess.22The seeming discrepancyin these reportsmay best be ex-plained by Mrs. Whicher's assumption that since the visitingproducer stayedwith theCanfields,he doubtless gave his hostthe benefitofmuch personal experience but relied upon Mr.Canfield to put it to practical use. Furthermore,Mr. Robin-son's inordinate shynessmay have prevented him fromanyshow of authoritywhile he was directing.An interviewwithProfessorHarold G. Merriam, at the Universityof Montana,who later invitedRobinson to direct a play there and who waspresentat several of the Missoula rehearsals,reveals that theguestproducer seldom, ifever,gave direct advice to the play-ers. He made quiet observations from time to time-little20 Excerpt from a letter fromthe late Mrs. George F. Whicher to Ida G.Everson,March 13, 1964-21 From a letter to Ida G. Everson,March 23, 1964.In a recent nterview tAmherst Aug., 1968),ProfessorMcGoun was still unable to recall specificde-tails of theproduction.22From a letter fromDean F. Curtis Canfield to Ida G. Everson,April 6,1964-


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12 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYmore thanhints-and leftthe actors to discovertheirmistakesforthemselves nd to takethe initiativein correcting hem.23Although it has not been possible to give an adequate ac-count of the rehearsals of the Playboy, ratherfull details ofthe physical difficulties nder which the play was producedare available. An editorial entitled, Dramatics under Handi-cap, in The AmherstStudent,May 22, 1930, is representativeof a situationwith which the dramaticsdepartmentsof manyAmerican colleges of the era were faced. In fact,the editorialstill has a familiarring:College Hall24was built one hundred and one years ago foichurch nd Sundayschool exercises. he mostthatcan be said forit nowis that tis admirably daptedfor hadowpantomimes,ndthat t does providea convenientplace forthe annual ice-creamrush....The slopingfloormakes it all but impossibleto put in stagescrews; he ighting ystems primitive; nd there s no provisionfor lycenery.etsmustbe constructedn thecramped, arkcellar,and there s no roomfor torage. he uncomfortableeatsproducea restlessudience,hard toplease; and theacoustics fthehall aredeplorable.

But suchhandicaps wereno deterrent o thespirited players,and theAmherstMasquers were soon able to announce theirproduction of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the WesternWorld, to be given on Wednesday and Thursday evenings,May 21 and 22, 1930, with the following cast Directed byLennox Robinson and CurtisCanfield :25ChristopherMahon ................... KennethK. BerryOld Mahon,hisfather............... Curtis CanfieldMichael JamesFlaherty .............. RichardG. Gettell

23 Informationfrom an informalconversationwith ProfessorMerriam, atMissoula, Montana, Aug., 1967.24 College Hall, built in 1829,restoredn 1905 bytheclassof1884, tillstands,an imposingexample of earlyAmerican architecture. t is no longer used forplay production,however,having been superseded in 1938 by the new KirbyTheater, thebequest of Dr. Ellwood Kirby,ofPhiladelphia.25From a photostat copy of the program provided by Amherst CollegeLibrary.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 13MargaretFlahertycalled Pegeen

Mike ) his daughter ............... Hildegarde [sic]ThorpShawnKeogh [sic],hersecondcousin,a small farmer.................. J.F. Webb IIIPhilly Cullen, ............ ..... ..... Robert J. OgilviesmallfarmersJimmyarrell,J ..................... FrancisR. St.JohnWidowQuin ...................... HarrietWhicherSaraTansey ....................... KatharineCanfieldSusanBrady ...................... KatherineHoagvillagegirlsHonor lakef ...................... Irene almonNellie Doolanj ....................... Rita DeweyPeasants............................. MalcolmC. GreenawayAndr6 C. FontaineWilliamAllanJeremiah ngersollJamesM. WeldonThe chief primary source of our knowledge of the firstnight's performance s a studentreview,signed O. G. John-son, 26 which appeared in The Amherst Student, May 22, 1930.Since the review is not readily accessible, it is quoted here atsome length:No riot occurred ast night at College Hall as the Amherst

Masquersopenedtheir astplayoftheseason, ynge's ichcomedy,The PlayboyoftheWesternWorld,but an appreciative udiencedid greetthe ntelligent, erfectly-stagederformance ith a tre-mendousburst fapplause at thefinal urtain.The Masquerssur-mounted the difficultyf gettingacross the elusive quality ofSynge'sdramaby a spirited nterpretation hich testified o theworkofCurtisCanfield nd thegeniusoftheguest-producer,en-26 Olaf Gunnar Johnson,Amherst, lass of 1932; M.A. Harvard, 1941; PhiBeta Kappa. A letter fromMr. Johnson,Oct. 11, 1967,states: I regretthat Ican supplyno significantnformation n the circumstances f Lennox Robin-son's visitto theAmherst ampus in thespringof 1930. ....had no connectionwith theAmherstdrama organization.Why thendid I writemybrash review?I was competingfora place on the staff f thecollege newspaper,the Student....Your very eference omyarticlesendsa shudderdownmy spine afterthesemanyyears....


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14 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYnox Robinson of theAbbeyTheatre of Ireland. KennethBerry,27in a vividbut sensitiveportrayal f the Playboyhimself, omi-natedtheplayfrom hemomentwhenhemadehisfirst,restfallenappearancetohisfinal, lorious xit,and Mrs.W. L. Thorp,whoshared thehonorswithBerry,was an admirablePegeenMike....The onlyflawof theeveningfrom heviewpointof theaudiencewas the difficultyf catchingall the speech when dialect anddrunkenness ould combine to hinder clear enunciation.In their astplayof theyear,theMasquerspass from atireonBabbitry nd life-lies,o theworkof a man who believed thatthefunction f thestage s topresent eality nd joy.28 ohnM. Syngein hisPlayboyofthe WesternWorldwroteof a groupofcolorfulIrishpeasantfolk n their wnracy, yrical anguage.

Mr. Johnson thengave a summaryof the action of the playfollowedwith comment on the acting:The significancefthedramaas a satirical omedyhinges n thetransformationfChristyMahon from weakling ntoa manwho

can rule Old Mahon, his father, t the close of theplay. Berry'sintenseportrayal f thePlayboysucceededin makingthisfinalchangeconvincing o theaudience. Mrs.Thorp left ittletobe de-sired s PegeenMike,a wildgirland fine-looking.he tender ovescenebetweenChristynd Pegeen,probablythefinest artof theplay,washandleddelicately nd surely. t is difficulto saymuchof theothercharacters. hey did well althoughtheirpartsweremore n thenature ofbackgroundforthe twoprincipals.Mrs.G.F. Whicherwasa comicWidowQuin,who had killed herownhus-band and nowtooka great nterestnmenfolk. .F. Webb was theperfectcringingtype as the God-fearingShawn Keogh [sic],Pegeen's cousin who would have marriedher but for ChristyMahon. Shawn was entirely nlucky;he didn'tevenhave a fathertomurder o as tobecomea hero.The role ofMichael Flahertywastaken by Richard Gettell in good Elizabethan fashionbut anoverlyeffectiveroguemade much of his speech unintelligible.Old Mahon, with his dramaticentrances,was takenperfectlyy27Kenneth Kelita Berry Amherst, lass of 193o), the only studentmemberof the castwho played a leading part in The Playboy, died at the age of 35.Information romAmherstGraduates' Quarterly,Aug., 1945, 414-415.28Synge's Preface to The Playboy of the WesternWorld, was printedin fullon theback coverof theMasquers' program. n it Syngewrote: On thestage one must have reality nd one must have joy.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 15CurtisCanfield,makinghis first isibleappearanceof theyear n aMasquers'production. t.John nd Ogilviewerethedrunks, venheavydrunks,whosucceeded n distortingheir aces n a wonder-fulfashion, njoyable,no doubt for n audiencenot too squeam-ish.Theremaybe hope forAmherst et,whena quartetoffacultywives can frolic hrough hePlayboyas theydid, in thepartsofbarefooted nd strangelyleanfooted illage girls.R. C. McGoun,in charge fthetechnical ndoftheproduction,deserves hecreditforthesinglesetof theplay,theroom of thepublichousewith tsscores fbottleswith ll their wn memories.

With a tributeto Robinson's quiet influenceand unassum-ingmanner,and witha fewwordsofappreciation fromRobin-son himselfto ProfessorCanfield and the cast, Mr. Johnsonbroughthis account to a close:Anyreview f thePlayboywouldbe incompletewithout wordforthe man behindthepresentation, ennox Robinson.The en-tireperformance as runoff o smoothly hat no one stoppedto

considerwhat was makingthewheelsgo round. The directnessand effectivenessf thePlayboy howedtheexperience nd knowl-edgethatwerebehind t.The playwasIrishbut not rishy nd theperfectionfevery ittledramaticdetailhelped tomake theplaythewell-staged nit that t was in the hands of thevisitingplay-wrightndproducer.Lennox Robinson,after hepresentation fthePlayboy, pokeofhis pleasurein workingwiththe local group.He said thatheliked Berry'sworkverymuch indeed and also felt thathe, per-sonally,had gainedsomething rom is workwith theproduction.The stagebusiness f thePlayboyhas becomestandardized n Irishpresentations ithmanydeviationsfrom heoriginaltext,whichtheMasquersfollowed o the etter astnight.ConsequentlyRob-insonbelievesthathe has gained a newoutlookon severalpointsoftheplaythrough he newproblemswhichhavepresented hem-selves nd byhisassociationwithCurtisCanfield nd his interpre-tationofthePlayboy.29If today's readers of the review regretMr. Johnson's omis-sion of furtherinterpretationof the play, and especially the29All of thequotations fromMr. Johnson'srevieware takenfromThe Am-herst Student, May 22, 1930, 1, 2, 3-


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16 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYomissionof Mr. Canfield's nterpretation-thatromwhichRobinson aidhehimself adgained nsight,tmustbe bornein mindthatSynge dmitted hat The Playboy had manydifferentaspects.30In 1930, criticism of The Playboy had not yetcrystallizedinto our present-day erspective. t is not likely thata formalanalysis f themeaningof theplayhad takenshape at Am-herst, xcept perhaps n privateconversations etweenMr.Canfield ndhisguest-producer,hodoubtlesswisely greedto eave ttothe udience to nterpretheplayfor hemselves.Pegeen'sWesternWorld (the backwardworld of the WestCoastof reland)as symbolic f thewholegreatworldof thewestern ations,sa world mbodyinghepride, hehope,theyearningfthehumanspirit; hetendernessndpoetic magi-nation ndecstasyfhuman ove,theremorse,he nguish ndthedespairof ostopportunity,he rony nd thecomedy fthehumandilemma-all thisand more-was therefor eachmember fthe audience to enjoy according o thedegreeofhisdiscoveryndhisacceptance f t.There wereotheromissionsn Mr. Johnson's eview,butthesewereofthekindthat nly hepassingyears ouldfill n.In theperspectiveftoday, ne of the most ppealing spects

30soee Greene and Stephens,J. M. Synge New York, 1959), 244: In a letterto the rish Times,Syngeonce wrote, There are, it maybe stated, everal sidesto The Playboy. Upon anotheroccasion,he wroteto one of his correspondents:Whetheror not I agreewithyourfinal nterpretation f the whole play is mysecret. followGoethe'srule, to tell no one what one means in one's writings.I am sure thatyouwill agree thatthe rule is a good one.Two letters, uoted in Benjamin L. Reid, The Man fromNew York; JohnQuinn and His Friends,give interesting ontemporary nterpretations f theplay,when it was thesubjectof Dublin controversy: ne is fromT. W. Rolles-ton,Oct. 31 (apparently 1911): One sees in thesepeople a turbulentbutpower-ful life,a sort of geyserburstingup fromunknowndepths.They are patheti-callyignorant,wrong-headed, remendouslympressionable, nd withno powerof choosing what impressionsshould move them and what they should beimperviousto; but they re richly, ntensely ital,and, with any sortof decentchance to grow straight, his should save them n the end (115). The other isfromGeorgeRussell (AE), Dec. 7: If Irishpeople onlyrealized thatSynge ovedhis characters nd thoughthe was placing themin the mostfavorableway toshow theirvitality,theirgenius for speech and theirnaturalness, am suretherewould be no rows at all.... They were told bymistaken ritics hatSynge


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 17of the1930performances thefact hat omanymembers fthecastbecamefamousn their espective ields. he studentreviewer as,ofcourse, wareoftheprominencefHildegardThorp (PegeenMike) as thewifeofWillardL. Thorp,Pro-fessor fEconomics tAmherst;ndofHarrietWhicher theWidowQuin) as thewifeofGeorgeF. Whicher, rofessorfEnglish.And he referredo an additional quartetoffacultywives whotook heparts fthe strangelyleanfooted illagegirls who frolicked hrough he play. Of these,KatharineCanfield Sara Tansey)was the wifeofCurtisCanfield, n-structorn Drama; KatherineHoag (Susan Brady)was thewife of GilbertT. Hoag, Instructorn EnglishLiterature;IreneSalmon HonorBlake)wasthewifeofDwightSalmon,AssistantProfessorof History; and Rita Dewey (NellieDoolan)31wasthewife fAlexanderGordonDewey,Lecturerin Political Science. What the studentreporter ould notknow was that Mr. Canfield,who took the part of OldMahon82nd helpedto direct heplay,would becomeDeanoftheSchool ofDrama,at Yale University;hatRalphC. Mc-Goun,Jr., echnical irector ftheplay,would becomePro-fessor f DramaticArts tAmherstnd Director f itsKirbyTheater;norcouldhe knowthat, mongthestudentsn thecast,RichardGettell,who was thena freshmanplaying hepartofMichaelFlaherty), ould becomePresident fMountHolyokeCollege; that MichaelJames 3 ould becomeHeadofthe DramaDepartmentnd oftheTheater at KenyonCol-lege;andthatJeanF.Webb III (ShawnKeough)would makea name forhimself s a teacher nd as a writer f fiction.A photographfthe cast and staff as beenpreservedt Am-was sneeringat the people he wroteabout, and hence all the trouble (116).Printedwithpermissionof Mr. Diarmuid Russell.31The role of Nellie Doolan was, apparently, dded fortheAmherstpro-duction.The printedversionof theplay has onlythreevillage girls.32The AmherstMasquers is a studentorganizationbut they ometimeshaveto call upon facultymembers, acultywives,or women fromother colleges tofilltheroles.

33Mr. James'sname does not appear in theprogrambut he is identified nthephotographof cast and staff.


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18 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYherstCollege, with identificationof those taking the leadingparts.34The Masquers' Production of the play in 1930 had a re-markable guest-producer and a remarkable cast-sufficientqualification for tsclaim to recognitionbyfuturegenerations-but a note in the programfor the opening night added fur-ther usterto the occasion: The original manuscriptof 'ThePlayboyofthe Western World' is on view in the lobby. Howthis document reached Amherstfordisplay at the time of theperformancehas not been determined.Perhaps Lennox Rob-inson had somethingto do with it, forhe knew John Quinn,the New York lawyerwho had come to the aid of the AbbeyPlayers when theyran into trouble with The Playboy ontheirfirstAmerican tour of 1911-1912. Quinn purchased themanuscriptdirectlyfromSynge in 1907 for?2o3, and its re-cent discoveryin Indiana indicates that it had been in thepossession of the Quinn familyfor a considerable length oftime. In 1965, Mr. David A. Randall, Librarian at IndianaUniversity,brought it to the attentionof the public after tswhereabouts had been unknown formany years:

I do not know much about its provenanceexcept thatJohnQuinn purchased t directly rom ynge n 1907for?2o; and in1924 at his sale it brought 700. I do not know thepurchaser. tturnedup in the estate of Miss Mildred Quinn of Indianapoliswho wasa relative fsomesort ndwas thenpurchasedbyus.36The Chicago Tribune, of January 1, 1965, errs in statingthat the manuscript was unreported since its sale in 1924when the collection ofJohn Quinn... was broken up. Thestory fitsdisplayat Amhersthad, however,been told at some34A copyof thephotographand identifications as providedformyuse bytheLibrarian of AmherstCollege, Mr. E. PorterDickinson.S5 ee Catalog oftheAndersonGalleries, The LibraryofJohnQuinn, PartFour (Morris-Sterne),924,1, 995,entryno. 9971; Original Manuscriptof ThePlayboyof theWesternWorld.' Typed and writtenby the authoron 118 pagesof varyingsizes,mainly quarto. In a crushed blue levant morocco solandercase...36From letterofMr. David A. Randall to Ida G. Everson,Oct. 24, 1967.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 19length, in the Boston Transcript,of May 17, 1930,o and re-told in the Amherst Graduates Quarterly:

The Playboy manuscripts typewritten-it asSynge's ustomto typehis own work-butmanyalterations re writtennto thetext n redink, n Synge'shandwriting. here are, also,notationson thereverse ide of somesheets, ntended, pparently, s memo-randa for ynge's wnattention,nly-suchas bitsofdialogueandmemory-jogging otes of changesthat he wishedto make. Thechanges n thetext re sometimesmadewiththe effortpparentlyat a morepicturesque nd flavorypeech, nd sometimeswithaneyetodirectnessnd simplicity. greatmany lterations re con-cernedwith stagebusiness, withdirections, nd this,takeninconjunctionwithotherchanges,conduces to the beliefthat thealterationswere argely heoutgrowth f theauthor's attendanceonrehearsals inDublin].It is interestingonote that thisversion f theplay-whichcor-respondscloselywith theprintedversion-bearsno signsof anyattempt n Synge's artto soften he anguagewhich, egarded sa slur on the Irish peasantry, ccasioned the riot at theAbbeyTheatre....The historyf theplay'scareer nAmerica,whereNewEnglandcollege studentswere its greatest nd most effectivesupportersagainstthe ignorant nd vicious opposition,makesit peculiarlyappropriate hatSynge's riginalmanuscript f The PlayboyoftheWesternWorld should find resting lace in a New Englandcollege ibrary.38Although this did not prove to be its final resting place,threemanuscript lettersat AmherstCollege indicate that itdid remain for several years. One of these, from EdwardHutchinson Synge,J.M. Synge'snephew, dated December 28,1931,addressedto Dear Sir [theLibrarian?] reads in part:I believethe M.S.S. [sic]ofThe Playboyof theWesternWorldwhichbelongedto Mr.JohnQuinn is at presentn thepossessionof theAmherst ollege.73 photostatcopy showing Synge'scorrections, ogetherwith a reproduc-tion of Synge'sphotograph,was provided by courtesy fMr. E. PorterDickin-son (AmherstCollege).38xIx (1929-193o), 59-261.


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20 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLYPossiblyyouwould be sokindas to etmeknowdates, nd num-bers, r letters, ritten r typedbythe authorat thebeginning f

eachAct.I should like to have them to comparewith the earlierM.S.S.[sic]ofThe Playboy.A9Apparently Mrs. Cornelius Sullivan was the owner of thePlayboy manuscriptwhen she wroteon December 26, 1934,to ProfessorFletcher,Librarian of AmherstCollege: Dublinis eager toborrowthemanuscriptand I have promised to lend

it to them. It seems a fittingplace for them [the manuscriptand some letters]to visit. Although there need be no hurryabout it, I would like to have them as soon as it is convenientforyou ... to send them. 40On January 3, 1935, a prompt reply, signed Librarian,was sent to Mrs. Sullivan:We arenow sendingtheSyngeManuscript, etters nd Photo-

graphtoyoubyprepaidexpress nd we trust hattheywillmakethe ourney afely nd arrive n good condition. needhardly aythat we have appreciated verymuch indeed yourgenerositynlettingus keep theseas long as we have and youwill understandme when saythatwe see themgowith greatdeal ofregret.41All art is a collaboration, wroteSyngein his Preface toThe Playboy. He would have been pleased with this col-laboration which made of his once controversialcomedy anevent of significance nd satisfaction.Working with the play-wright'soriginalmanuscriptat hand to inspire them and witha distinguished guest-conductorto guide them, the sensitivecast gave a warmlyacclaimed performanceof a play which

39 The letter s dated from Knockroe,Dundrum Co Dublin Ireland, andsigned E. H. Synge. Printed withpermissionofAmherstCollege Libraryandof ProfessorJohnL. Synge,brotherof the late E. H. Synge.Robert S. Fletcherwas Librarian ofAmherstCollege in 1931.40The letter s dated from 111 East 62nd Street,New YorkCity and signedMary Sullivan (Mrs. Cornelius J.). Printedwith the permissionof AmherstCollege Library.41Printedwithpermission fAmherstCollege Libraryand of Mrs.HenryG.Dravneek, daughterof the late Robert S. Fletcher,who retiredin 1935. Thethree lettersquoted above are in AmherstCollege Library.


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ROBINSON AND SYNGE'S PLAYBOY 21twenty ears eforehad beennearlyhootedoff heAmericanstage.Under the co-directionf an enthusiasticnd giftedyoungAmerican eacher,nd supported ya competentech-nical staffnd an energetic tudentreporter,heMasquers'production of 1930 set an indelible stamp of approval on theonce maligned Playboy. This performancestands today asa symbol of Lennox Robinson's unremittingdevotion to thecauseof rishnationaldrama nd ofhisfaith n theeffective-nessoftheeducationalprocess o adjuststrainedhumanre-lationships.t stands lso as a symbol fAmericanculturalgrowth.As such, t deserves place-howevermodest-inthehistory f New England collegedramatics s well as in theannalsoftheAbbeyTheatre.

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