The Playboy of the Western World
As early as 1907, performances of John Millington Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World" resulted in riots by theatergoers, which had to be quelled by police. The real W. B Yeats, a friend of both authors, said similar words at or after both riots. "Young Cassidy" brings this parallel history (the riots of "The Plough and the Stars" and "The Playboy of the Western World") to vivid life, tied together by the character of Yeats.