Riders to the sea
By: John Millington Synge
Contributors: Synge, J. M. (John Millington), 1871-1909
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London]
Language: eng
Description: Maurya's son Michael has been swept out to the sea, the latest of the men in her household to die. While they wait for his body to wash ashore, the last remaining man in the house, Bartley, decides to take a boat to the mainland for the Connemara horse fair. But Maurya's premonition of the ghost of Michael following Bartley out to sea proves ominous, leaving Maurya and her daughters alone. First performed in 1904, Synge's one-act play 'Riders to the Sea' carries with it the weight of a culture in thrall to the ocean around it, in a style reminiscent of ancient Greek tragedy,at once unmistakably local and inescapably epic.
Notes: Previously published in print: in Complete plays. London, Methuen Drama, 2001.