{"id":277,"date":"2025-04-24T13:10:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T13:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/31\/?p=277"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:37:36","slug":"relocation-dislocation-recontextualization-two-recent-us-stagings-of-adigun-doyles-playboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/31\/relocation-dislocation-recontextualization-two-recent-us-stagings-of-adigun-doyles-playboy\/","title":{"rendered":"Relocation, Dislocation, Recontextualization: Two Recent U.S. Stagings of Adigun\/Doyle Playboy<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bisi Adigun<\/strong>*<\/a> and Meghan Winch<\/strong>**<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle\u2019s adaptation of The Playboy of the Western World<\/font> is a reimagining of John Millington Synge\u2019s comedy of the same title. This adaptation is set in a Dublin pub where gangsters live in a dangerous world of organized crime and retaliatory violence, with Christopher, a Nigerian asylum seeker, on the run for the crime of patricide. When the adaptation premiered at the Abbey Theatre in 2007, it was a hit. But its relocation to Washington DC by Solas Nua in 2022 caused a dislocation that necessitated a slight recontextualization before it was presented by Inis Nua in Philadelphia two years later. 

Keywords<\/strong>: adaptation, translocation, dislocation, recontexualization, Abbey Theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle\u2019s adaptation of J.M. Synge\u2019s The Playboy of the Western World <\/em>had its U.S. premiere by Solas Nua Theatre at the Atlas Performing Arts Center located in Washington D.C. in October 2022, nearly all the reviews were positive, including Peter Marks\u2019s in the Washington Post<\/em>, but for his reservation about what he refers to as \u201cdiscomfiting optics\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The production by Solas Nua, a D.C. company that highlights Irish arts and culture, is the first for the play since its debut at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 2007. It’s a clever enough adaptation, engagingly directed at Atlas Performing Arts Center by Shanara Gabrielle. […] Some adjustments are needed, though, in a plot with discomfiting optics: When, for instance, the dim townfolk turn on Christopher, a mob shows up with a rope. Um, not funny\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Adigun\/Doyle adaptation is a faithful retelling or reimagining of J.M. Synge\u2019s classic comedy of the same title. But while Synge\u2019s play, first performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1907, is set in County Mayo with all-Irish characters, the Adigun\/Doyle adaptation is set in a Dublin pub in 2007 with gangsters living in a dangerous world of organized crime and retaliatory violence. More significantly, Christy, the Irish outsider, becomes Christopher, a Nigerian asylum seeker on the run for \u201ckilling\u201d his father in Nigeria with a pestle. The Abbey Theatre\u2019s world premiere of the adaptation in 2007 to commemorate the centenary of the original production was so commercially successful that it was brought back a year later. Due to the legal controversies[1]<\/sup><\/a> surrounding that second staging, however, the play was in hiatus for nearly 15 years until Solas Nua presented its American premiere in 2022 in Washington D.C., where it received rave reviews with the exception of Marks\u2019s reservations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, another theatre company, Inis Nua, opened its 2024\/2025 season with a bold, hyperrealist production of the adaptation in Philadelphia, but only after the recontextualization for American audiences of that aspect of the play. In this article, we critically compare these two American productions and delineate why dislocation, which often occurs after the relocation of a dramatic text, necessitated an important recontextualization for American audiences, particularly in Philadelphia. Although \u201can adaptation is likely to be greeted as minor and subsidiary and certainly not as good as the original\u201d (Hutcheon, xii), it may instead be a vehicle for renewing and reexamining the original\u2019s central questions by addressing them more directly to contemporary audiences.[2]<\/sup><\/a> It is not surprising, therefore, that it was the differences between Irish audiences in 2007 and the American ones in 2022 that necessitated the recontextualization of the Playboy<\/em> drama for a subsequent American production in 2024. But before we unpack how the relocation of the Adigun\/Doyle adaptation caused a dislocation that was fixed by recontextualization, we need to put both the original and the new version in context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical and Geographical Context<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Irish Literary Revival of the late nineteenth century was an explosion of poetry, prose and drama that often drew inspiration from a renewed interest in the Irish language, stories and history. The movement\u2019s goal was guided by the 1897 Manifesto for Irish Literary Theatre\u2014a statement of intent made by Lady Augusta Gregory, W.B. Yeats and Edward Martyn\u2014which was to tell a story about Ireland through its art, to craft an image of a people and nation that spoke to its long history, and to form a national theatre that would promote these ideals. Six years later, the Abbey Theatre opened in Dublin with the goal of producing Irish plays and the poetic drama that came from the Revival, and playwright John Millington Synge, an Abbey co-director with founders Yeats and Lady Gregory, premiered The Playboy of the Western World<\/em> there in 1907. On the advice of Yeats to return to Ireland from Paris and use his gifts to \u201cexpress a life that has never found expression\u201d (Yeats 1905), Synge spent time on the highly rural Aran Islands, recording local speech patterns and folktales. The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>, according to its author, was based on one such story about an attempted murderer whom the Aran locals sheltered from authorities. Synge then relocated the play to a pub in County Mayo, making Christy Mahon a fellow Irishman from County Kerry. Michael Flaherty is a publican, and his customers are farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1907 premiere was met with riots and boos. In the throes of a revival in militaristic Irish nationalism, many leaders saw the play as a vulgar insult\u2014they did not like the rather undignified story it told about the country. Sinn F\u00e9in leader Arthur Griffith called it “a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform.\u201d In 1911,The Playboy of the Western World<\/em> made its American debut when the Abbey Players toured the U.S. The play was again met with riots, this time driven largely by Irish American associations who objected to the depiction of Irishness. However, the play would soon be recognized as a masterpiece, and it has become the most performed and most adapted play in the Irish canon. (See: King and Spangler 2024 for the chronology of major productions and adaptations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Adigun\/Doyle Adaptation<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1993, playwright Bisi Adigun, born and raised in Nigeria, moved to Ireland after three years living in England. He enrolled in a graduate program in drama studies at University College Dublin, which required him to attend and review theatre performances. In 1998, Adigun saw a student production of Synge\u2019s Playboy, <\/em>but did not think much of it. <\/em>However, in 2003, Adigun was asked to write an essay about how as a Nigerian immigrant he taught himself to laugh at Irish jokes. In the essay, \u201cAn Irish Joke, A Nigerian Laughter,\u201d Adigun explores the role cultural familiarity plays in our reception of comedy\u2014that being familiar with a culture\u2019s mores and morals is necessary for understanding its jokes: \u201cThough we all laugh the same way, the kinds of things that are considered funny … differs from one culture to another\u201d (78). In writing the essay, Adigun read The Playboy of the Western World<\/em> and was newly struck by the resonance between Christy\u2019s plight and the experience of immigrants in their new country. As he writes in the essay, \u201cFor any immigrant to fit into a new environment, a lot of reinvention is necessary. … Because Christy Mahon reinvents himself, he is accorded the respect he truly deserves for the first time\u201d (82). The ability to tell a compelling story is central to that reinvention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adigun\u2019s arrival in Ireland coincided with a period of unprecedented migration to the country. The so-called Celtic Tiger economy was booming from the early 1990s until the global economic downturn between 2007 and 2009. As a result, a country known for outward migration became a magnet for immigrants from all over the world. As Charlotte McIvor, who has written extensively on what she has termed as the \u201cNew Irish\u201d and intercultural theatre, has noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These growing minority-ethnic groups have been referred to as the New Irish and \u201cinterculturalism\u201d has become a major buzzword in government, NGO, and activist circles, resulting in new public initiatives and programs aimed at integrating new communities, encouraging anti-racist practices, and educating the Irish-born. (211)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, as the cultural landscape of Ireland became increasingly diverse, so did its cultural products\u2014especially Irish theatre performances, which required an Other in them to reflect Ireland\u2019s increasing diversity. Consequently, from 1997 to 2003, Adigun, who had worked extensively as a freelance performing artist in the U.K., was featured regularly in Irish plays that required a black character. But Adigun could not recall a single character that he played on the Irish stage in this period that he could be proud of (Adigun, 2006). It was to create such characters for himself and other African immigrants that, in 2003, Adigun founded Arambe Productions, Ireland\u2019s first African theatre company, with the aim of introducing Irish audiences to African theatre traditions through the production of African plays and the reinterpretation of relevant Irish plays. To meet this objective, Arambe began to stage plays regularly; in 2005, it commissioned Adigun and Irish writer Roddy Doyle to adapt The Playboy of the Western World <\/em>into a modern context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Adigun\/Doyle\u2019s adaptation, a Nigerian asylum seeker is dropped into an unfamiliar world with social codes that he must navigate on the fly. In his essay, Adigun writes about seeing Martin McDonagh\u2019s The Beauty Queen of Leenane<\/em> in his early years in Ireland and feeling outside the joke\u2014he could not share in the Irish audience\u2019s laughter because in the Yoruba culture of western Nigeria, \u201cwe strongly believe that age is wisdom and as such it is disrespectful to laugh at the aged\u201d (78). This alienation is part of what Christopher feels as he arrives in this fateful Dublin pub\u2014he is unfamiliar with the rules, expectations and humor of his hosts, and he must adjust to them in real time if he is to be accepted. This nearly line-for-line adaptation preserves the humor and the exploration of myth-making of Synge\u2019s original while shining a light through it that illuminates urgent, contemporary issues of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abbey Premiere Production<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Abbey (which became the English-speaking world\u2019s first state-subsidized theatre in 1924, fulfilling the Manifesto\u2019s intent 20 years after the theatre\u2019s founding) staged the world premiere of Adigun\/Doyle adaptation in 2007, marking the original\u2019s 100th anniversary with this bold and contemporary reimagining of what it means to be Irish, to be Nigerian and to find a way to be at home in a strange land. Just as Christy\/Christopher must tell their stories to remake themselves, The Playboy of the Western World <\/em>was remade to speak to modern audiences, today.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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From Left: Olu Jacobs (Chief Clement Malomo), Kate Brennan (Sarah), Aoife Duffy (Susan), Joe Hanley (Jimmy), Phelim Drew (Philly) and Charlene Gleeson (Honor) in a scene in The Abbey Theatre production of Adigun\/Doyle adaptation. Photo: Ros Kavanagh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When the performance was presented in Dublin, it was met with great expectations and curiosity, because audiences were very familiar with both Doyle\u2019s and Adigun\u2019s work. Described by the Abbey Theatre as \u201cIreland\u2019s best loved writer,\u201d Doyle is an acclaimed writer of novels, including The Commitments<\/em> (1987), Snapper<\/em> (1990), and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha<\/em> (which won him the Booker Prize in 1993, the year it was published). Known for his hard-hitting and humorous dialogue rooted in working-class Dublin, Doyle was also well-known for writing the film adaptation of The Commitments<\/em> and for the 1994 RTE\/BBC mini-series The Family,<\/em> which, not unlike the 1907 Playboy<\/em>, generated heated debate about whether it was a realistic portrayal of domestic violence or a misrepresentation of working-class Dubliners. Adigun was also relatively well-known. From 2000 to 2003, he was a co-presenter of Mono<\/em>, RTE\u2019S flagship intercultural television magazine programme. Having produced and directed theatre productions, including The Gods Are Not To Blame<\/em> in 2004; Once Upon A Time<\/em> and Not So Long Ago<\/em> (a double bill) in 2005; an all-black cast production of Jimmy Murphy\u2019s The Kings of the Kilburn High Road<\/em>, which was a highlight of the 2006 Dublin Fringe Festival; and The Dilemma of A Ghost<\/em> in April 2007, Fintan Walsh remarked that \u201c<\/strong>Arambe raises topical issues … and in doing so affirms its position as an important force in contemporary Irish theatre.\u201d (12) However, their Playboy<\/em> adaptation, which Adigun has described as a synergy between two cultures (see: Adigun 2008), was described by the Irish media as quintessential Doyle, to Adigun\u2019s dismay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Adigun stresses the fact that the idea of the collaboration was his, and both authors insist that the rewrite happened line by line together, this jars with the general reception of the piece, which Emer O\u2019Kelly sums up succinctly as \u2018pure Doyle\u2019. An Irish Independent <\/em>review ran with the headline \u2018Doyle\u2019s Synge-lite has laughs but not subtlety (Irish Independent<\/em>)\u2019 and plenty of other reviewers highlight Doyle\u2019s authorship of the piece and sideline Adigun\u2019s. (O\u2019Toole 2012, 235)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a way, the biases of the Irish media and scholars towards Doyle contributed to the tension between Arambe and the Abbey and between Adigun and Doyle. When the Abbey staged the play again in December 2008, it was without the permission and input of Adigun, who would eventually discover that 121 changes were made to the text used for the revived production. Adigun initiated copyright infringement proceedings against the Abbey Theatre, Doyle and director Jimmy Fay. In 2013, the proceedings were settled in Adigun and Arambe\u2019s favour, and Doyle signed over all his rights in the play to Adigun. The adaptation remained in hiatus until Rex Daugherty, the artistic director of Solas Nua, took the bold step to give the play a new lease of life in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Solas Nua<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Solas Nua, which means \u201cnew light\u201d in Irish, was founded in 2005 with the main aim of bringing the best of contemporary Irish arts to Washington D.C. Over the two decades of its existence, the company has presented audiences with an array of contemporary Irish theatre, music, dance, visual arts, film and literary events. The company has earned multiple Helen Hayes Awards and nominations, as well as the DC Mayor\u2019s Arts Award. Though a multidisciplinary arts organization, it is for Solas Nua\u2019s theatre programming that The New York Times<\/em> and The Washington Post<\/em> have included the company in their \u201cbest theatre productions of the year\u201d lists (Solas Nua).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rex Daugherty became the artistic director of Solas Nua in 2015 and has taken the company to greater heights, garnering many international accolades. Around 2020, Daugherty contacted Adigun seeking the rights to the Adigun\/Doyle version of The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>. It was also under Daugherty\u2019s tenure that the company released what it calls \u201cOur evolving statement on diversity and inclusion\u201d on its website. The statement opens with the following bold assertion: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solas Nua affirms our commitment to recognizing and addressing all forms of racist and ethnic oppression. We stand in solidarity with Black artists, audience members, neighbors, and friends throughout this ongoing struggle. (Solas Nua)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the settlement of the copyright infringement case in 2013, no individual or company had shown interest in staging the Adigun\/Doyle version. Therefore, one can argue that Solas Nua decided to stage the U.S. premiere of the play to implement its diversity and inclusion policy. After a COVID postponement, it finally became reality in 2022 when the play ran at the Atlas Performing Arts Centre from 3 November 2022 to 20 November 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solas Nua\u2019s U.S. Premiere Production<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Serving as the production\u2019s producer, Daugherty engaged Shanara Gabrielle as director; Gabrielle describes herself as \u201ca purpose driven leader who creates exceptional theatre experience for all communities.\u201d (LinkedIn) Before the commencement of rehearsals, Gabrielle had an important Zoom meeting with Adigun to discuss her interpretation of the play. During this meeting, Gabrielle said she felt that a white hand putting a rope with a noose on a black body would be problematic for American audiences, more so post-George Floyd. An African American man, Floyd\u2019s brutal murder was caused by asphyxiation when a policeman knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during a May 2020 arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd\u2019s tragic death sparked widespread protests and riots all over America and across the world. The call for an end to police brutality, systematic racism and social injustice after Floyd\u2019s death has contributed to the Black Lives Matter movement. Considering Floyd\u2019s legacy, which continues to inspire social justice activism, it would appear insensitive, according to Gabrielle, if the production enacted the following stage directions (words bolded for emphasis):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MICHAEL, SEAN, PHILLY, JIMMY, and PEGEEN come in. They stay near the door. MICHAEL has both crutches. Sean carries a length of rope with a noose. <\/strong>CHRISTOPHER sits on the stool, exhausted, unaware of the others.<\/strong><\/em>

[…]

MICHAEL: We\u2019ll put the body in the boot with this fella and bury them both. Look at him: he\u2019s away off in his head somewhere. Come on. (Steps aside, to SEAN<\/em>) Go up behind him and you<\/strong> can get the rope over his head, no bother.<\/strong>

[…]

PEGEEN:\u00a0I\u2019ll do it.

She takes the rope and goes to CHRISTOPHER<\/em><\/strong>. The others follow. She drops the noose over<\/strong> CHRISTOPHER\u2019s head and shoulders. <\/strong>They tighten it around him, trapping his arms at the elbows.<\/em>

(Adigun and Doyle 116-17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, Christopher has tried to kill his father for the second time, because the fallacy of patricide that earned him the status of a celebrity whom all women love and all men envy has been shattered by his dad\u2019s reappearance. To ensure that he is punished for committing murder in the presence of all, the rope with a noose is used to capture and restrain him, as in the original. After all, Adigun\/Doyle\u2019s version \u201cfollows the bends and twists of Synge\u2019s plot precisely and beautifully\u201d (O\u2019Toole 2024, 181). But while the rope caused no controversy when the play premiered in Dublin, Gabrielle was concerned about it. To allay her concerns, Adigun reminded Gabrielle of the difference between the drama and the theatre. The drama has been written on page by the co-authors; how it becomes theatre onstage for her American audience is Gabrielle\u2019s responsibility, particularly because of the historical significance of a noosed rope in America. Also known as a hangman\u2019s noose, the noosed rope is a stark reminder of the profoundly disturbing Jim Crow era (1877 to 1965) in America, when lynching, racial terror and violence against African Americans were the order of the day. Lynching, often carried out by a white mob with the covert or overt support of law enforcement, is the public killing of an individual without due process. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 4,743 lynchings occurred in the U.S. from 1882 to 1968. But a noosed rope does not only evoke all the painful memories of those dark days of lynching in America; it also symbolizes systemic racism, white supremacy and terrorism. Gabrielle therefore did indeed have something to worry about when she saw a noosed rope in the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play was staged in an alleyway theatre with a realistic set complete with a fully stocked fridge with drinks by scenic designer Nadir Bey. The set was so intimate and realistic that in Anne Valentino\u2019s 2022 review for MD Theatre Guide, she writes, \u201cIn fact at the performance I attended, one audience member actually hung their jacket on what was part of the set design.\u201d The cast, co-led by Rebecca Ballinger (Pegeen) and Jamil Joseph (Christopher), was so collectively exceptional that as Susan Galbraith writes in her DC Theatre Arts review, \u201cIt\u2019s not clear who has more fun, the audience or the ensemble on stage.\u201d For Valentino, \u201cYou have to applaud all of the actors as the ensemble does a superb job of making the audience feel as though they are not only spectators but patrons at the pub.\u201d In terms of the production design, Valentino writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaney Breys\u2019 sound design helps bring some of the outside world in, while Sarah Tundermann\u2019s lighting creates both intimate moments as well as a few more existential ones. All come together seamlessly under the inspired direction of Shanara Gabrielle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, instead of recontextualizing the text to fix the dislocation that Gabrielle had envisaged due to its relocation to the States, she decided to use a multi-coloured rope that was not noosed, as shown in figure 2 below.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jamil Joseph (Christopher) and Rebecca Ballinger (Pegeen). Photo: Courtesy of Solas Nua\u2019s Rex Daugherty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Arguably, using a multi-colored rope was not a complete solution, as it was the only bone of contention during a post-show Question and Answer session with Adigun and in the Washington Post<\/em> review. In his own review, Nathan Pugh remarked that \u201cSolas Nua\u2019s production sometimes struggles to find a tonal balance between cringey comedy and dark tragedy.\u201d While Pugh does not mention the rope, Colleen Kennedy\u2019s review in the Washington City Paper<\/em> makes a positive case for it, with due reference to the original. Kennedy writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the play\u2019s ugliest scenes, Christopher is tied up by an unruly mob. This happens in Synge\u2019s original, too, but when it\u2019s a group of white working-class Irish men attempting to lynch a Black man, the same scene moves from dismantling Celtic self-mythologizing to contemporary issues of anti-Black racism and xenophobic violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the play ends on a lighter note, \u201cdespite that moment of terror,\u201d as Kennedy concluded, when the play relocated to Philadelphia, Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan and Inis Nua invited Adigun over to recontextualize the usage of the rope to prevent its audiences from unnecessarily associating its appearance with the dark history of lynchings in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inis Nua\u2019s Production<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Inis Nua, translated from Irish, means \u201cNew Island.\u201d The company\u2019s mission is \u201cproducing contemporary, exciting plays from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.\u201d According to its website, in over 20 years of its existence, the company has produced 17 American premieres, 13 Philadelphia premieres and one world premiere. The company has received six Barrymore Awards, including the prestigious June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company (2014). On June 1, 2020, Inis Nua shared a public statement in support of Black Lives Matter with the promise to \u201cchallenge ourselves to work to better understand systemic racism, our own complicity in this system, and to do better.\u201d Towards this end, the company further states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inis Nua recognizes that in our company\u2019s past programming, we have focused on the limited understanding of the Irish and British experience through a white cultural lens. (…) Contemporary populations and culture on the islands of Ireland and Great Britain are diverse and Inis Nua is committed to continuing to improve its presentation of work by diverse playwrights as well as plays on issues affecting people from marginalized communities in these nations. (Inis Nua)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the rights of the Adigun\/Doyle adaptation now reside solely with Adigun and the play foregrounds the issue of identity and belonging, the adaptation and copyright ownership status align organically with Inis Nua\u2019s policy on diversity and inclusion. When Kathryn MacMillan was appointed the artistic director of Inis Nua in 2022, she decided to open the company\u2019s 2024\/2025 season with a production of the Adigun\/Doyle version. Furthermore, to demonstrate that her tenure at the helm of Inis Nua will take the company\u2019s focus on diversity and inclusion very seriously, MacMillan, whom Philadelphia Weekly<\/em> described as \u201csensationally gifted\u201d\u2014having won the newspaper\u2019s Best Director award and worked as an arts leader and a director in the Philadelphia region for over 20 years with over 60 productions under her belt\u2014decided to direct the production. An early achievement in MacMillan\u2019s role as artistic director was to make a successful grant application to The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage for major support of her planned production. In making the application, MacMillan was asked by the Pew Center to \u201cdescribe your project and its focus\u201d; her response was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adaptation builds a bridge between a classic Irish play and modern Nigerian experience. Our goal is to build a bridge to African audiences in Philadelphia and span new distances for the Irish American community. Nigerian audiences will be able to recognize themselves in this work, while Irish audiences are challenged to confront urgent truths about modern Irish identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was due to the success of the grant that the company was able to invite Adigun to Philadelphia to participate in a week-long workshop to rework the aspect of the play that DC audiences found uncomfortable. The workshop, which involved MacMillan; Ademide Akintilo, a New York-based Nigerian actor cast as Christopher; and Adaeze Nwoko, Brittany Onukwugha and Meghan Winch, who would serve as the production\u2019s cultural dramaturgs and dramaturg, respectively, was facilitated by Anthony Martinez-Briggs, a DEI expert who sent Adigun detailed information on the historical significance of the noose in America. At the end of the workshop, Adigun recontextualized the stage direction containing the rope as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MEN are kitted in all sorts of paraphernalia that they can find in the garage \u2013 e.g., jumper cables, zip ties, tire jack, protective goggles. SEAN is wearing a tire\u2019s inner tube. MICHAEL has both crutches and is wearing a blue Tyvek suit with a hood. They stay near the door, SEAN is carrying jumper cables. CHRISTOPHER sits on the stool, exhausted, unaware of the others.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was decided that the men should adorn themselves with anything they can find in the garage to make the scene more grotesque. But, more importantly, a jumper cable has replaced the controversial, historically significant noosed rope, hence the further following slight but significant changes made by Adigun for the Philadelphia production:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MICHAEL: We\u2019ll put the body in the boot with this fella and bury them both. Look at him: he\u2019s away off in his head somewhere. Come on. (Steps aside, to SEAN<\/em>) Go up behind him and just jump him, no bother.\u00a0<\/strong>

[…]

PEGEEN: Leave it to me.<\/strong>

She goes behind the counter, brings out a couple of zip ties. The others follow. She goes to CHRISTOPHER<\/em><\/strong>. He reaches out to her, seeking comfort.<\/em>

CHRISTOPHER: Oh, Pegeen.<\/strong>

PEGEEN quickly zip ties CHRISTOPHER\u2019s hands<\/em>.<\/strong>

CHRISTOPHER: Pegeen!<\/strong>

PEGEEN: Now.<\/strong>

PHILLY snatches the cables from SEAN and cables CHRISTOPHER up. He holds one end and gives SEAN the other<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>

(Inis Nua\u2019s production 2024 script)<\/p>\n\n\n

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From Left: Michael Stahler (Sean), Anthony Lawton (Michael), Taylor Congdon (Pegeen), Owen Corey (Philly), Ademide Akintilo (Christopher) and Andrew Criss (Jimmy) in a scene from Inis Nua\u2019s production of the Adigun\/Doyle adaptation of The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>. Photo: Ashley Smith of Wide Eyed Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While Inis Nua\u2019s production was not as widely reviewed as Solas Nua\u2019s, it was a commercial and critical success for the company. In the words of Cameron Kelsall in Broad Street Review<\/em>, \u201cDirector Kathryn MacMillan fosters a lively company that moves seamlessly between broad comedy and wrenching emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Taylor Congdon (Pegeen) and Ademide Akintilo (Christopher) in Inis Nua\u2019s production of Adigun\/Doyle adaptation of The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>. Photo: Ashley Smith of Wide Eyed Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Of the performances of Ademide Akintilo (Christopher) and Taylor Congdon (Pegeen), Kelsall writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any production of The Playboy of the Western World<\/em> lives and dies on the chemistry between Christopher and Pegeen, the spirited young woman who runs the pub with an iron tongue, if not always an iron fist. Here Akintilo and the extraordinary Taylor Congdon have charisma to burn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The set was akin to a site-specific production of the play, described by MacMillan as \u201chyperrealism: transported into Dublin pub life.\u201d In his feature for Metro Philadelphia, AD Amorosi notes: \u201cAs for the Playboy<\/em>\u2019s staging startling reality, nothing is better to reenact a pub setting than to, well, just build a working pub\u2014courtesy of set designer Christopher Haig.\u201d Since the rope was never used in Inis Nua\u2019s production, we will never know what audiences and critics alike would have made of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

When Adigun and Doyle teamed up from 2006 to 2007 to co-adapt Synge\u2019s iconic play, they sought to create what Synge would have written had he lived 100 more years after his play premiered at the Abbey. It is against this backdrop that in their adaptation, Adigun and Doyle have changed the setting, remade all the characters to reflect the reality of modern-day Ireland and updated the vernacular. Matthew Spangler is right, therefore, when he contends that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adigun and Doyle have written what adaptation theorist Linda Hutcheon calls a \u201ctranscultural adaptation,\u201d one in which the setting, historical era, or characters of the source material are re-presented in the adaptation in such a way that the new work engages intercultural or political themes not present in source text. (King and Spangler 5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as we have shown in this article, particularly with the highly sensitive issue of the rope, it is one thing to stage a transcultural adaptation within the country where it was created and set; it is a different thing altogether to translocate such work to another country. In such circumstances, dislocations do occur that can be resolved through recontextualization. The dislocation that was discovered when Solas Nua translocated the Adigun\/Doyle to Washington D.C. had been addressed by recontextualization, facilitated by Inis Nua before its Philadelphia production. The conclusion to be drawn is that even if a play is published, it must not be seen as a museum piece that cannot be recontextualized for the benefit of a new audience, because without the important contribution of an audience, drama cannot fully and truly transform into theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Endnotes<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> For details of the legal dispute, see here<\/a> or here<\/a>. For the text of the play as well as essays on the adaptation readers can also see: The Playboy of the Western World: A New Version: A Critical Edition<\/em> edited by Jason King and Matthew Spangler. Syracuse UP, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a> For insightful debates on adaptation and liveness of performance, see: Peggy Phelan and Philip Auslander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Adigun, Bisi. “Arambe Productions: An African\u2019s Response to the Recent Portrayal of the Fear. Gorm in Irish Drama.” Performing Global Networks.<\/em> Edited by Karen Fricker and Ronit. Cambridge Scholars, 2007, pp. 52\u201366.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cWhy +How = Wow<\/a>.\u201d Irish Times\u2019 Weekend Magazine<\/em>, November 1, 2008. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adigun, Bisi and Roddy Doyle. \u201cThe Playboy of the Western World \u2013 A New Version<\/em>.\u201d The<\/em> Playboy of the Western World \u2013 A New Version: A Critical<\/em> Edition,<\/em> edited by Jason King and Matthew Spangler, Syracuse UP, 2024, pp. 15\u2013121.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adigun, Olabisi. \u201cAn Irish Joke, A Nigerian Laughter.\u201d The Power of Laughter: Comedy and Contemporary Irish Theatre<\/em>, edited by Eric Weitz, Carysfort Press, 2004, pp. 76\u201386.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediated Culture<\/em>. Routledge, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabrielle, Shanara. LinkedIn<\/a>. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galbraith, Susan.\u201cSolas Nua\u2019s new \u2018Playboy of the Western World\u2019 is now a laugh riot<\/a>.\u201d DC Theater Arts<\/em>, 7 Nov. 2022. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffith, Arthur. \u201cReview of \u201cThe Playboy of the Western World<\/em>.\u201d\u2019 Sinn F\u00e9in<\/em>, 2 Feb. 1907.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. <\/em>Routledge. 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inis Nua<\/a>. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsall, Cameron. \u201cInis Nua presents Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle\u2019s Adaptation of John Millington Synge\u2019s The Playboy of the Western World<\/em><\/a>.\u201d Broad Street Review<\/em>, 20 Sept. 2024. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy, Colleen. \u201cBisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle\u2019s Timeless The Playboy of the Western<\/em> World<\/em> Makes Its U.S. Debut.\u201d Washington City Paper, <\/em>10 November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King, Jason and Matthew Spangler. \u201cIntroduction.\u201d The Playboy of the Western World<\/em> \u2013 A New Version. A Critical Edition<\/em>, edited by Jason King and Matthew Spangler, Syracuse UP, 2024, pp. 1-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacMillan, Kathryn. <\/em>Pew Heritage Grant Application Form, submitted 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marks, Peter. \u201c2 DC Plays put wit and warmth on the map, from Ireland.\u201d Washington Post,<\/em> 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIvor, Charlotte. \u201cStaging the \u2018New Irish\u2019: Interculturalism and the Future of the Pos-Celtic Tiger Irish Theatre.\u201d Modern Drama<\/em>, vol. 54, no. 3, 2011, pp. 310-32. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAACP<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Toole, Emer. \u201cRights of Representation: An Ethics of Intercultural Theatre Practice.\u201d PhD diss., Royal Holloway, University of London, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cIntercultural Theatre Wars.\u201d The Playboy of the Western World \u2013 A<\/em> New Version. A Critical Edition,<\/em> edited by Jason King and Matthew Spangler, Syracuse\u00a0UP, 2024, pp. 173\u201386.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phelan, Peggy, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance<\/em>. Routledge 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pugh, Nathan. \u201cSee or Skip. Two Shows we Saw at DC Theatres in Early November<\/a>.\u201d DCist, <\/em>14 November 2022. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solas Nua<\/a>. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentino, Anne. \u201cTheatre Review: Solas Nua\u2019s The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>\u201d at the Atlas Performing Arts Center<\/a>.\u201d MD Theatre Guide<\/em> 21 November 2022. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walsh, Fintan. \u201cA Review of Arambe\u2019s Production of The Dilemma of a Ghost.\u201d Irish Theatre<\/em> Magazine, <\/em>Summer 2007, p.12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeats, W.B. \u201c \u2018Preface\u2019 to the First Edition of Well of the Saints<\/em>,\u201d London, 1905, p. vi; reproduced in Modern Irish Drama<\/em>, edited by John P. Harrington, Norton, 1991, p. 452. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Bisi Adigun. <\/strong>Currently with Bowen University, Iwo, Adigun was an adjunct lecturer of African Theatre at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the founder of Arambe Productions, Ireland\u2019s first African theatre company, the co-editor of The Soyinka Impulse: Essays on Wole Soyinka <\/em>(BookCraft, 2019), and the editor of Remembering Ola Rotimi: A Complete Man of The Theatre<\/em> (Bowen UP, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

**<\/a>Meghan Winch<\/strong> is a dramaturg, playwright, and arts administrator in Philadelphia, PA. She was a dramaturg for Inis Nua\u2019s 2024 production of The Playboy of the Western World<\/em>. She is a co-playwright of The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged<\/em> (Concord Theatricals, 2024) and holds a master\u2019s degree in Theatre with a focus on dramaturgy from Villanova University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2025 Bisi Adigun and Meghan Winch
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>, #31, June 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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