The production began its widely acclaimed run on July 10. DruidSynge, which premiered in Galway, Ireland, in July 2005 before touring to Dublin and the Edinburgh International Festival, is part of the Lincoln Center Festival. It features seven Synge plays—Riders to the Sea (1902), The Playboy of the Western World (1907), Shadow of the Glen (1902), The Tinker's Wedding (1907), The Well of the Saints (1905), Deirdre of the Sorrows (1907)—all directed by Tony Award winning director Garry Hynes. The event is the product of the Druid Theatre Company. (Deirdre of the Sorrows is an unfinished work left by the playwright who died, age 37, in 1908.)
The cast, which is the same as was seen in Ireland, includes Tony Award winner Marie Mullen (The Beauty Queen of Leenane), Sarah-Jane Drunney, Richard Flood, Simone Kirby, Mick Lally, Marcus Lambe, Nick Lee, Louise Lewis, Eoin Lynch, Hannah McCabe, Charlie McCarthy, Aaron Monaghan, Eamon Morrissey, Marie Mullen, Derry Power, Peg Power, Gemma Reeves, Catherine Walsh, John Gaughan, and Joseph Gaughan.
All six plays are presented on the same grim, dirt-floored set, with a few variations in furniture, props and lighting. The evening begins with the sorrowful and show Riders and concludes with the formal history fable Dierdre. Playboy is the longest work of the six; it arrives next to last and is the centerpiece of the evening. Mullen appears in every play except Glen.
DruidSynge is presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre at John Jay College at 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets. Each performance lasts eight hours, 36 minutes, including three 15-minute intermissions, as well as a 90-minute dinner break.