John Millington Synge
16 April 1871, Rathfarnham - 24 March 1909, Dublin. Irish playwright, poet and travel writer. Best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World.
Early Life and Childhood
Edmund John Millington Synge was born in Rathfarnham, near Dublin on 16 April 1871. When he was one year old, his father, John Hatch Synge, died and his mother, Kathleen, decided to move to Rathgar, Ireland, where John grew up with eight siblings. Despite his weak health, Synge lived a happy life in Rathgar, spending a lot of his free time watching birds and collecting their eggs with his cousin Florence Ross.
Education
Due to his weak health, Synge was mainly educated at home by private tutors during his childhood. In 1887 he entered the Royal Irish Academy of Music to learn how to play the violin. A year later, he signed up at Trinity College Dublin to study Irish and Gaelic, in which he received his B.A. in 1892. The following year, Synge moved to Germany to continue with his music studies and to become a professional musician. However, in 1884 he changed his mind, decided to pursue his luck in literature and returned to Ireland. In January 1885, Synge chose to study literature and languages at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he also met fellow Irish dramatist W.B. Yeats, who convinced him to spend some time on the Aran Islands.
The Aran Islands
Between 1898 and 1902, Synge spent a few weeks on the Aran Islands each year, living in seclusion from civilization amongst local seamen, studying their habits and their folklore, an experience that serves as the background for his novel The Aran Islands, which he finished by 1901 but was not published until 1907, and the plays In the Shadow of the Glen (1903), Riders to the Sea (1904) and The Well of the Saints (1905).
The Playboy Riots
In 1905, Synge became the director of the newly founded Abbey Theatre, alongside Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory. In 1907, the Abbey saw the staging of The Playboy of the Western World, a play in which the protagonist (supposedly) kills his own father. Before its premiere, the play was heavily criticized for reinforcing stereotypes of the violent Irish and for attacking the nation of Ireland itself. The criticism reached its climax, when a significant part of the premiere audience started to riot during the third act of the play. The riots would continue during the stagings throughout the opening week. "On the third night Yeats addressed the audience before the curtain rose. If anyone had anything to say against the piece they would be welcomed at a debate which he would be glad to arrange in the theatre at some other time. He was interrupted several times. He asked the interrupters to at least listen to the play so that they would know what it was they were objecting to" (qtd. in O'Malley).
Death
By the time of the Playboy Riots, Synge had suffered from Hodgkin's disease for a long time. The turmoil and stress lead to a quick decrease of his health. In 1908, Synge published his last complete work The Tinker's Wedding, on which he had been working for more than five year. On 24 March 1909, only a couple of days from his 39th birthday, John Millington Synge died from Hodgkin's disease in a nursing home in Dublin.
Sources
Merriman, C.D. J.M. Synge (http://www.online-literature.com/synge/), 2005
O'Malley, Sheila The Playboy Riots (http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=2820), 2005
Synge, J. M. & Tim Robinson The Aran Islands London: Penguin Books, 1992