J. M. Synge Scenes for Two Actors: The Playboy of the Western World and The Well of the Saints

Your teacher hands out the scene-study list and one line says “Synge.” You and your partner look it up and find the title everyone knows, The Playboy of the Western World, and a lot of essays about riots. Nobody tells you which page to start on.

Synge is worth the hunt. His people talk in long, curling sentences that sound like music and trip you up the moment you paraphrase them. That makes his scenes good practice for dialect work and for learning lines exactly, and his two big comedies are full of duets: a lonely young man and a sharp-tongued barmaid, a widow on the make, and two blind beggars who have spent years believing they are beautiful.

The short version: below are six two-person scenes, four from The Playboy of the Western World and two from The Well of the Saints. Each one has the line it starts on, the line it ends on, what each character wants, how the words split, and about how long it runs, with a shorter cut for the longest scenes. Every quoted line was checked against the Project Gutenberg text. After the scenes comes the practical part: how to learn sentences this long without smoothing them into ordinary English.

Use the free text, and both of you use the same one

Both plays are free. Project Gutenberg has The Playboy of the Western World and The Well of the Saints, and its catalog lists both as public domain in the USA. You can also read them in our play library, with every role’s line count: The Playboy of the Western World and The Well of the Saints.

Our library uses the Standard Ebooks edition, which is based on the Gutenberg transcription but modernizes a few spellings. Gutenberg prints to-day where Standard Ebooks prints today, for example. It’s a small thing, but pick one text with your partner before anyone learns a word, so your cues match.

A little history helps you pitch the scenes. The Well of the Saints was, in the words of the Gutenberg text, first produced in the Abbey Theatre in February, 1905. The Playboy opened at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on 26 January 1907, and the play’s Wikipedia entry records riots during and after the opening performance, partly over a line about women standing in their shifts. It was meant to be funny and it was meant to sting. Play both.

A note on the times. We counted the spoken words in each scene, stage directions out, and divided by 140 words a minute, the pace our acting scripts to practice page uses. Synge’s people pause, boast, and circle back, so a staged run will be longer. For a competition, check the clock: the International Thespian Excellence Awards acting rules say a duet must not exceed five minutes, timed from after the slate.

The Playboy of the Western World: four scenes

Christy Mahon stumbles into a pub on the Mayo coast and confesses he killed his father. Instead of turning him in, the village makes him a hero. Pegeen Mike, the publican’s daughter, falls for the story first. Every scene below is a version of the same question: how much of Christy is real?

Christy and Pegeen, Act 1: the noble brow

The men have gone out, and Pegeen sends Shawn packing. It starts on her Go on, I’m saying, and don’t be waking this place with your noise. and runs to Christy’s half-finished boast, It’s time surely, and I a seemly fellow with great strength in me and bravery of, which is cut off by a knock at the door.

What each wants: Pegeen wants to find out if this stranger is as grand as his story. Christy, who has never been praised in his life, wants more of whatever this is. Watch the moment it lands:

PEGEEN: Wasn’t I telling you, and you a fine, handsome young fellow with a noble brow?

CHRISTY: Is it me?

PEGEEN: Aye. Did you never hear that from the young girls where you come from in the west or south?

Gutenberg gives Christy the direction with a flash of delighted surprise on Is it me? That’s the whole scene in three words.

The full stretch is about 1,070 words, roughly 8 minutes, and Christy has about 62% of them, mostly in long speeches about poaching and his father. For a shorter version, start at Christy’s You’ve a power of rings, God bless you: about 710 words, just over 5 minutes, so trim a few lines for a five-minute limit. The split tips further his way, to about 72%.

Christy and Pegeen, Act 2: born lonesome

The next morning. The village girls have been fussing over Christy, and Pegeen has just chased off the Widow Quin. It starts on Pegeen’s Fling out that rubbish and put them cups away. and runs until Shawn walks in, ending on her line that she wouldn’t care for a lad without a mighty spirit in him and a gamey heart.

What each wants: Pegeen is jealous and wants to frighten Christy into staying close. She tells him about a hanging in the papers. Christy wants her pity and takes it, then says he’ll leave. The turn is his I wish to God I was letting on; but I was lonesome all times, and born lonesome, I’m thinking, as the moon of dawn. After that, she admits I’m after going down and reading the fearful crimes of Ireland and finding nothing: You’re safe so with ourselves.

This is one of the most even of the four, about 1,085 words, roughly 8 minutes, with Pegeen at 52%. For a five-minute version, start at Christy’s If there’s that terror of them: about 670 words, just under 5 minutes, with Christy at 59%. That’s tight against a five-minute limit, so time it out loud.

Christy and the Widow Quin, Act 2: you’re like me, so

Christy’s father has turned up alive, and the Widow Quin has just sent him off across the sands. It starts on her Well, you’re the walking Playboy of the Western World and ends on her long offer of a life in her cottage, when voices start calling Christy’s name.

What each wants: Christy wants Pegeen and is terrified she’ll find out. The Widow Quin, a woman of about thirty by the cast list, wants Christy, and she has just seen his father alive.

She sneers at Pegeen (There’s poetry talk for a girl you’d see itching and scratching), then softens. When Christy says You’re like me, so., her answer is the beat to find: I am your like, and it’s for that I’m taking a fancy to you. This stretch is about 530 words, under 4 minutes, split almost evenly, so it fits under five minutes as given. The two keep talking past this point, until the girls come in, if you want a longer version.

Christy and Pegeen, Act 3: the love scene

Christy has won every race at the sports, and the men bring him back to the pub. Pegeen sends them away. It starts on her Well, you’re the lad, and you’ll have great times from this out and runs to her speech that ends when she hears her father coming home from the wake.

What each wants: Christy wants a promise of marriage within a fortnight. Pegeen wants to believe him and keeps testing whether his talk is only talk. He piles image on image (Isn’t there the light of seven heavens in your heart alone), and she ends up surprised at herself, and I the fright of seven townlands for my biting tongue. About 740 words, a little over 5 minutes, close to even; trim a few lines for a five-minute limit. The audience knows Christy’s father is alive. Play it as if neither of you does.

The Well of the Saints: Martin and Mary Doul

Martin and Mary Doul are blind beggars on a roadside in the east of Ireland. The cast list calls Mary nearly fifty and her husband Martin a weather-beaten, blind beggar, so Mary is a part for an older actor, and the pair work as a duet for two older actors. A saint cures their sight, they see each other for the first time, and they are horrified. Later they go blind again.

Act 1: the beautiful dark woman

The play’s opening. It starts on Mary’s What place are we now, Martin Doul? and Martin’s Passing the gap. and runs until someone comes up the road and Mary tells Martin to put the pith away out of sight. In between, Mary insists she was called the beautiful dark woman, and Martin, a little too interested, asks Isn’t laughing a nice thing the time a woman’s young? about the girl at the well.

What each wants: Mary wants to keep the story that they’re the handsomest pair in the county. Martin wants it too, but he’s curious about the world he can’t see. It’s about 915 words, 6 to 7 minutes, with Mary at 61%; for a five-minute limit, trim some of Mary’s longer speeches. It’s funny, and it hurts more once you know what’s coming.

Act 3: a great pair, surely

Both are blind again, and they stumble onto each other on the road. It starts a moment into Act 3, on Mary’s Let you not be telling lies to the Almighty God. and Martin’s startled Is it Mary Doul, I’m saying? They trade insults (I can’t help your looks, Martin Doul.) until Martin finds a new story to live in: a beautiful, long, white, silken, streamy beard. Mary agrees, Well, we’re a great pair, surely, and the scene runs on until they hear the saint’s bell, hide in a briar, and Mary whispers They’re coming. I hear their feet on the stones.

What each wants: at first, to wound. Then, to build a new lie together so they can bear the old age ahead. The full stretch is about 1,410 words, roughly 10 minutes, split evenly. For a shorter version, stop at Martin’s line about a fine white beard growing on his chin: about 780 words, about 5 and a half minutes, so trim a few exchanges for a five-minute competition. That cut ends on the reconciliation, which is a strong place to stop.

Learn Synge’s sentences word for word

Synge wrote in the preface to the Playboy that every speech in a good play should be as fully flavoured as a nut or apple, and he says he used one or two words only that he hadn’t heard among Irish country people. He describes listening through a chink in the floor of an old Wicklow house to the servant girls in the kitchen. The words are borrowed from real talk, then arranged with a poet’s ear, and the arrangement is the line.

So the first rule is the same as for any dialect script: never tidy the grammar. Our guide to learning lines written in dialect explains why. In practice, these are the patterns to protect:

• The “after” perfect. I’m after going down and reading means, roughly, that Pegeen has just been down and read the papers. Hiberno-English uses it for a recent action, sometimes called the “after perfect”. If you say “I just went down,” you’ve learned a different line.
• “Let you” for orders. In our reading, Let you not be telling lies is an instruction. Keep “let you”; don’t drift into “don’t.”
• “Itself” where you’d say “even.” In our reading, Martin’s or a penny copper itself means “or even a penny.” It feels odd in the mouth, which is exactly why it slips.
• The trailing “and” clause. Synge hangs a picture on the end of a sentence with “and”: and you a fine, handsome young fellow with a noble brow. These are easy to drop, because the sentence already makes sense without them.
• The tag at the end. I’m thinking, surely, so. Short, easy to lose, and they carry the rhythm. We’re alike, so. without the “so” is flat.

For the long speeches, work in phrases, not sentences. Learn the first clause cold, add the next, and say the growing chain out loud each time. Then test yourself from first letters. Here is Christy’s turn from Act 2 as cues:

I w t G I w l o; b I w l a t, a b l, I t, a t m o d.

If you can say I wish to God I was letting on; but I was lonesome all times, and born lonesome, I’m thinking, as the moon of dawn. from that, every “and” and every tag included, you have it. Our free first-letter memorizer turns any speech into cues like these.

Should you do an Irish accent?

Ask your teacher or director first. Some will want you to try one, because the music of the lines and the sound go together. Others will rather you keep your own voice and play the rhythm truthfully than fight a shaky accent for five minutes.

Either way, learn the words before the sound. If you add the accent while the lines are still loose, you’ll be working on two things at once and the grammar is what slips. Once the text is solid, our guide to how to learn an accent for acting has a step-by-step method. If the scene is for an audition, read should you do an accent in an audition first.

Notice, too, that the two plays sit in different places. The Playboy is set on the Mayo coast in the west. The Well of the Saints is set in the east of Ireland, by its own stage directions. If you do an accent, it’s worth knowing which part of the country you’re in.

Rehearse it before you meet your partner

Synge’s cues are often short (Is it me? Passing the gap.) and come after long speeches, so you have to listen for the end of a long sentence and answer at once. That’s hard to practice alone with the text in front of you. In Offbook, upload the scene in the text you’ve chosen and pick your part, and realistic voices read the other one and wait for you to say your line. As the video below shows, you can hide your lines while your partner’s stay visible, or switch on first-letter cues as a step on the way, then hide the entire script for a final run.

You can slow your partner’s voice down while you learn Christy’s or Mary’s long speeches, then bring it back up to speed. If you just want to warm up, our free run lines online tool rehearses classic scenes and waits for your line, with no account. For a whole week’s plan, our guide on how to prepare a scene for acting class takes you from first read to performance.

Want something else from the same shelf? Our monologues library has solo speeches from public-domain plays, and our dramatic scenes for a man and a woman covers more duets.

Questions actors ask

What is the best Synge scene for a duet competition?

Christy and the Widow Quin in Act 2 of The Playboy of the Western World. It’s about 530 words, under 4 minutes on paper, close to an even split, and has a clear turn. Time it out loud, since Thespys duets stop at five minutes.

Is there a Synge scene for two older actors?

Yes. Martin and Mary Doul in The Well of the Saints. The cast list describes Mary as nearly fifty, and both are weather-beaten beggars. The Act 3 meeting, cut to about 5 and a half minutes, is the stronger choice; trim a little more for a five-minute limit.

Are Synge’s plays free to perform from?

The texts are free to read and copy: Project Gutenberg lists The Playboy of the Western World and The Well of the Saints as public domain in the USA. If you’re outside the US, check your local rules, and for a public performance ask your school or theater how they handle rights.

Can I rehearse a Synge scene without my partner?

Yes. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and Offbook’s voices read your partner’s lines and wait for yours. You can also listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere, which helps the rhythm sink in.