# The Playboy of the Western World: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> J. M. Synge. 19 speaking roles, 15,902 words, about 114 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-playboy-of-the-western-world
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Christy** has the most to say in The Playboy of the Western World: about 506 lines and 4,266 words, 26.8% of the play. Synge’s comedy follows Christy, a young stranger who wins the admiration of a County Mayo village by claiming he killed his father. Christy carries about a quarter of the words, with Pegeen close behind at about a fifth and Widow Quin next. All three speak in every act, while Mahon does not appear until Act 2.

- Speaking roles: 19
- Scenes: 3
- Words: 15,902
- Speech time: 114 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Christy | 506 | 4,266 | 26.8% | 30.5 | 3 |
| Pegeen | 395 | 3,306 | 20.8% | 23.6 | 3 |
| Widow Quin | 287 | 2,346 | 14.8% | 16.8 | 3 |
| Mahon | 167 | 1,390 | 8.7% | 9.9 | 2 |
| Shawn | 159 | 1,334 | 8.4% | 9.5 | 3 |
| Michael | 155 | 1,308 | 8.2% | 9.3 | 2 |
| Philly | 68 | 583 | 3.7% | 4.2 | 2 |
| Jimmy | 56 | 469 | 2.9% | 3.4 | 2 |
| Sara | 44 | 369 | 2.3% | 2.6 | 2 |
| Susan | 21 | 169 | 1.1% | 1.2 | 1 |
| Crowd | 12 | 102 | 0.6% | 0.7 | 1 |
| Honor | 11 | 89 | 0.6% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Nelly | 7 | 49 | 0.3% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Men | 6 | 34 | 0.2% | 0.2 | 2 |
| Town Crier | 3 | 24 | 0.2% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Voices | 4 | 24 | 0.2% | 0.2 | 2 |
| Girls | 4 | 20 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Shaneen | 2 | 13 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Voice | 2 | 4 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Act 1 = Act 1; Act 2 = Act 2; Act 3 = Act 3.

- **Christy**: Act 1 (1,248), Act 2 (1,647), Act 3 (1,371)
- **Pegeen**: Act 1 (1,796), Act 2 (630), Act 3 (880)
- **Widow Quin**: Act 1 (452), Act 2 (1,226), Act 3 (668)
- **Mahon**: Act 2 (450), Act 3 (940)
- **Shawn**: Act 1 (623), Act 2 (432), Act 3 (279)
- **Michael**: Act 1 (549), Act 3 (759)
- **Philly**: Act 1 (194), Act 3 (389)
- **Jimmy**: Act 1 (155), Act 3 (314)
- **Sara**: Act 2 (342), Act 3 (27)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Christy: “Half a hundred beyond. Ten there. A score that’s above. Eighty jugs. Six cups and a broken one. Two plates. A power of glasses. Bottles, a schoolmaster’d be hard set to count, and enough in them, I’m thinking, to drunken all the wealth and wisdom of the County Clare. There’s her boots now, nice and decent for her evening use, and isn’t it grand brushes she has? Well, this’d be a fine place to be my whole life talking out with swearing Christians, in place of my old dogs and cat, and I stalking around, smoking my pipe and drinking my fill, and never a day’s work but drawing a cork an odd time, or wiping a glass, or rinsing out a shiny tumbler for a decent man. Didn’t I know rightly I was handsome, though it was the divil’s own mirror we had beyond, would twist a squint across an angel’s brow; and I’ll be growing fine from this day, the way I’ll have a soft lovely skin on me and won’t be the like of the clumsy young fellows do be ploughing all times in the earth and dung. Is she coming again? Stranger girls. God help me, where’ll I hide myself away and my long neck naked to the world? I’d best go to the room maybe till I’m dressed again.” | Act 2 | 224 | 23 |
| Michael: “It’s the will of God, I’m thinking, that all should win an easy or a cruel end, and it’s the will of God that all should rear up lengthy families for the nurture of the earth. What’s a single man, I ask you, eating a bit in one house and drinking a sup in another, and he with no place of his own, like an old braying jackass strayed upon the rocks? It’s many would be in dread to bring your like into their house for to end them, maybe, with a sudden end; but I’m a decent man of Ireland, and I liefer face the grave untimely and I seeing a score of grandsons growing up little gallant swearers by the name of God, than go peopling my bedside with puny weeds the like of what you’d breed, I’m thinking, out of Shaneen Keogh. A daring fellow is the jewel of the world, and a man did split his father’s middle with a single clout, should have the bravery of ten, so may God and Mary and St. Patrick bless you, and increase you from this mortal day.” | Act 3 | 189 | 19 |
| Christy: “I did, God help me, and there I’d be as happy as the sunshine of St. Martin’s Day, watching the light passing the north or the patches of fog, till I’d hear a rabbit starting to screech and I’d go running in the furze. Then when I’d my full share I’d come walking down where you’d see the ducks and geese stretched sleeping on the highway of the road, and before I’d pass the dunghill, I’d hear himself snoring out, a loud lonesome snore he’d be making all times, the while he was sleeping, and he a man ’d be raging all times, the while he was waking, like a gaudy officer you’d hear cursing and damning and swearing oaths.” | Act 1 | 120 | 12 |
| Mahon: “I’m poorly only, for it’s a hard story the way I’m left today, when it was I did tend him from his hour of birth, and he a dunce never reached his second book, the way he’d come from school, many’s the day, with his legs lamed under him, and he blackened with his beatings like a tinker’s ass. It’s a hard story, I’m saying, the way some do have their next and nighest raising up a hand of murder on them, and some is lonesome getting their death with lamentation in the dead of night.” | Act 3 | 96 | 10 |
| Shawn: “Oh, Widow Quin, what’ll I be doing now? I’d inform again him, but he’d burst from Kilmainham and he’d be sure and certain to destroy me. If I wasn’t so God-fearing, I’d near have courage to come behind him and run a pike into his side. Oh, it’s a hard case to be an orphan and not to have your father that you’re used to, and you’d easy kill and make yourself a hero in the sight of all. Oh, Widow Quin, will you find me some contrivance when I’ve promised you a ewe?” | Act 2 | 94 | 10 |
| Michael: “The blessing of God and the holy angels on your head, young fellow. I hear tell you’re after winning all in the sports below; and wasn’t it a shame I didn’t bear you along with me to Kate Cassidy’s wake, a fine, stout lad, the like of you, for you’d never see the match of it for flows of drink, the way when we sunk her bones at noonday in her narrow grave, there were five men, aye, and six men, stretched out retching speechless on the holy stones.” | Act 3 | 89 | 9 |
| Pegeen: “There was not, but a story filled half a page of the hanging of a man. Ah, that should be a fearful end, young fellow, and it worst of all for a man who destroyed his da, for the like of him would get small mercies, and when it’s dead he is, they’d put him in a narrow grave, with cheap sacking wrapping him round, and pour down quicklime on his head, the way you’d see a woman pouring any frish-frash from a cup.” | Act 2 | 84 | 9 |
| Mahon: “It’s maybe out of reason that that man’s himself. There’s none surely will go cheering him. Oh, I’m raving with a madness that would fright the world! There was one time I seen ten scarlet divils letting on they’d cork my spirit in a gallon can; and one time I seen rats as big as badgers sucking the life blood from the butt of my lug; but I never till this day confused that dribbling idiot with a likely man. I’m destroyed surely.” | Act 3 | 83 | 9 |
| Christy: “It’s little I’m understanding myself, saving only that my heart’s scalded this day, and I going off stretching out the earth between us, the way I’ll not be waking near you another dawn of the year till the two of us do arise to hope or judgment with the saints of God, and now I’d best be going with my wattle in my hand, for hanging is a poor thing, and it’s little welcome only is left me in this house today.” | Act 2 | 82 | 9 |
| Pegeen: “It’s true the Lord God formed you to contrive indeed. Doesn’t the world know you reared a black lamb at your own breast, so that the Lord Bishop of Connaught felt the elements of a Christian, and he eating it after in a kidney stew? Doesn’t the world know you’ve been seen shaving the foxy skipper from France for a threepenny bit and a sop of grass tobacco would wring the liver from a mountain goat you’d meet leaping the hills?” | Act 1 | 81 | 9 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Philly and Susan
- Philly and Honor
- Philly and Nelly
- Philly and Girls
- Jimmy and Susan
- Jimmy and Honor
- Jimmy and Nelly
- Jimmy and Girls
- Sara and Voice
- Susan and Crowd
- Susan and Men
- Susan and Town Crier

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in The Playboy of the Western World?

Christy, with about 506 lines and 4,266 words, 26.8% of everything spoken in the play. Pegeen is next, with about 395 lines (20.8%).

### How long is The Playboy of the Western World?

The full text has 15,902 spoken words, about 114 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in The Playboy of the Western World?

19 named roles speak in this edition, across 3 scenes. 10 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/j-m-synge/the-playboy-of-the-western-world) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).