Share with: John Millington Synge’s ‘scandalous’ play THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD is vividly brought to screen in this 1962 film adaptation which sees some of the leading lights of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre performing alongside English actor Gary Raymond who portrays the playboy of the title. Truth be told, most folk would be hard-pushed to find anything scandalous about this evergreen of the repertory theatre though bear in mind that the play premiered in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in the year of our Lord 1907 and - this being Catholic Ireland – republicans and nationalists alike caused riots as they deemed the play an affront to public morals… not to mention the fact it didn’t depict Ireland and the Irish from a particularly flattering viewpoint.