403 PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Maury Cooper, Herbert Foster, Peter Nyberg, Ray Fry, David Birney, Sydney Walker, Martha Henry.

THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD [Dramatic Revival] A: John Millington Synge; D: John Hirsch; S/C: Douglas W. Schmidt; L: John Gleason; P: Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center; T: Vivian Beaumont Theatre; 1/7/71-2/20/71 (52)

Philip Bosco, Frances Sternhagen, Stephen Elliott. Photos: Martha Swope.

J.M. Synge’s centennial was being celebrated when this masterwork of his was revived at Lincoln Center, but the production failed to do much honor to his memory. It was slightly superior to the general run of shows produced under Jules Irving’s management, but, as Jack Kroll observed, it failed to reach “the true heights.”

There were those who relished it, of course, and among them were Richard Watts, who thought it the company’s “most skillful work”; Douglas Watt, for whom it was a “spirited production . . . filled with enchantment”; and Walter Kerr, who attributed its success to “a tight, right company of actors.”

Martha Henry, David Birney, Stephen Elliott.

Fence straddlers included Harold Clurman, who thought it was “far from” a complete success, yet better than most New York revivals. “What the production lacks is an overall style and a sustained mood in which the form is felt as part of a wistful, almost sorrowful, remoteness of background, the aching haggardness of the boggy horizon.” T.E. Kalem took to task the company’s “demolition crews of sub-par actors and inept directors” for having “bulldozed [the play] into poetic rubble.” To Brendan Gill, the play had aged gracelessly, had too obvious a plot, and was given too literal a staging. John Simon, who was displeased with much of the ornate language and stupid characters, claimed that the revival lacked consistency of dialect, and suffered from rhythm-less direction and “disappointing” performances.

David Birney, Elizabeth Huddle, Martha Henry, Susan Sharkey, Tandy Cronin.

Those performances were in the hands of—to cite some of the better-known names—Martha Henry as Pegeen Mike, Sydney Walker as Michael James Flaherty, Philip Bosco as Jimmy Farrell, David Birney as Christy Mahon, Frances Sternhagen as Widow Quin, Elizabeth Huddle as Sara Tansey, Tandy Cronin as Honor Blake, Susan Sharkey as Susan Blake, and Stephen Elliott as Old Mahon.