PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD Coming to Ware Center

Four-time RTE All Ireland Drama winners Kilmeen Drama Group will take their multi-award winning production of The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge to the United States, in October. RTE is our national TV & Radio broadcaster in Ireland. It stands for Radio Teilifis Eireann which is Gaelic for Radio, Television, Ireland. They sponsor and promote the All Ireland Drama finals annually. Co-presented by Millersville University and Tellus 360, The Playboy of the Western World comes to the Ware Center off Broadway in NYC. The Ware Center is located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster.

Located in West Cork in the South of Ireland, Kilmeen Drama Group is one of the longest established drama groups nationally. Founded in 1954 in St. Mary's Theatre, Rossmore, the group has regularly competed in the 3 Act & 1 Act festival circuits ever since. Generally focusing on the 3 Act festival circuit, Kilmeen have qualified for the All Ireland finals, held annually in Athlone, on numerous occasions, winning the coveted All Ireland title on four of those visits. In 2011, Kilmeen became the first group in Irish amateur drama history to win both the 3 Act & 1 Act All Irelands in the same year.

The Playboy of the Western World has been Kilmeen Drama Group's longest running production to date with a four-night run on the Peacock Stage in the Abbey Theatre, in June 2013, playing to sell-out audiences, following the group winning their third successive RTE All Ireland crown, along with the Abbey Theatre Award, a month earlier. This followed previous wins with A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant by Tom Murphy (2006), A Whistle in the Dark by Tom Murphy (2011) and Conor McPhearson's The Weir (2012). Indeed, all of the successful productions were directed by the late Tim Coffey, who presided over a period of unparalleled success in the history of the amateur drama movement.

The play is set in a rural shebeen on the coast of Co. Mayo, where Margaret Flaherty, or Pegeen Mike as she's known locally, is preparing for her arranged marriage to local farmer Shawn Keogh. But these plans are scuppered by the arrival of Christy Mahon, a curious stranger telling tales of a brave and frightening deed. As word spreads of Christy's story it grabs the attention of the local women, but while Christy is enjoying his newfound fame his celebrity status is short lived, with the arrival of another walking stranger.

John Millington Synge's extraordinary play was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. The premiere production famously provoked riots, allegedly arising from the portrayal of Irish womanhood and the use of the word 'shift'. (Christy says of Pegeen that he would choose her even if he were "brought a drift of chosen females, standing in their shifts . . .") WB Yeats returned from Scotland to address the crowd on the second night, famously declaring, "You have disgraced yourself again, is this to be the recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?"

Tickets are $18 adult | $15 senior | $5 student. Tickets can be purchased online at www.ArtsMU.com or by calling the Millersville University Ticket Office at 717-871-7600. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ticket Office on the Millersville University campus (Student Memorial Center) and at the Ware Center, located at 42 N. Prince Street in downtown Lancaster.

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