1. J. M. Synge’ Riders to the Sea

3. J M Synge
John Millington Synge, widely regarded as the most influential Irish dramatist of the twentieth century, burst on to the scene in 1903 when his first play, he Shadow of the Glen, caused a stir among audiences and critics alike during its opening run in Dublin. Over the next two years Synge produced another two plays: Riders to the Sea (1904), which is considered to be one of the greatest one-act plays in the history of modern drama; and The Well of the Saints (1905) which celebrates the imagination and heroism of the dissident who refuses to be coerced into conformity at the behest of the moral majority.

4. J M Synge
Synge’s stature as a dramatist of international importance was assured early on and continues to grow. As many of the essays in this volume attest, his global influence extends far and wide to the work of Eugene O’Neill, Djuna Barnes and James Weldon Johnson in America; to Louis Esson in Australia; to Bertolt Brecht and Federico García Lorca in Europe; and to Derek Walcott and Mustapha Matura in the West Indies.

5. Riders to the Sea
Riders to the Sea (1904) is considered to be one of the greatest one-act plays in the history of modern drama.
Riders to the Sea can easily be read as an exposé of the cloying and atrophying influence of tradition, where youthful ambition is discouraged out of a pathological need….

6. Riders to the Sea
the profound tragedy of Riders is intended to evoke pathos.
Riders hinges on an old woman

7. Riders to the Sea
Riders relies on tragedy and tension.

8. Riders to the Sea
As an island nation, Ireland has an intimate relationship with the sea.

9. Riders to the Sea
Riders draws on practical, mythical and literary aspects of Ireland’s seafaring tradition.

10. Riders to the Sea
The tragedy of Riders is not to be associated with Michael or Bartley, but with Maurya.

11. Riders to the Sea
The sea is the main theme of the play: it is both provider and destroyer.

12. References
Mathews, P. J. The Cambridge Companion To J.M. Synge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Print