Riders to the Sea

Sara Allgood photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1938

Riders to the Sea is a play written by Irish playwright J. M. Synge. It was first performed on February 25,1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin by the Irish National Theater Society. A one-act tragedy, the play is set in the Aran Islands, and like all of Synge's plays it is noted for capturing the poetic dialogue of rural Ireland.

Important Characters

Only four characters are named: Maurya, an elderly Irishwoman, her daughters Cathleen and Nora, and her son Bartley. Also mentioned are Maurya's deceased sons Shawn, Sheamus, Stephen, Patch, and Michael. The young priest is also important to introduce controversies about Maurya's sons, e.g. whether the clothes are from Michael's body, whether the young priest let Bartley go to sell his horse, etc).

Plot Synopsis

Maurya has lost her husband, father-in-law, and five sons to the sea. As the play begins Nora and Cathleen receive word that a body that may be their brother Michael has washed up on shore in Donegal, far to the north. Bartley is planning to sail to Connemara to sell a horse, and ignores Maurya's pleas to stay. As he leaves, he leaves gracefully. Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons, and her daughters chide her for sending Bartley off with an ill word. Maurya goes after Bartley to bless his voyage, and Nora and Cathleen receive clothing from the drowned corpse that confirms it as their brother. Maurya returns home claiming to have seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley and begins lamenting the loss of the men in her family to the sea, after which some villagers bring in the corpse of Bartley, who has fallen off of his horse into the sea and drowned.

Other versions

Cinema

At least two motion picture versions of the play have been made:

• A 1935 40-minute black and white movie directed by Bryan Desmond Hunt with screenplay adaptation by Patrick Kirwan with Sara Allgood.
• A 1987 47-minute colour movie directed and adapted by Ronan O'Leary with Geraldine Page.

Opera

The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams made an almost verbatim setting of the play as an opera, using the same title.

Quotes

• "They're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me." - Maurya
• "No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied." - Maurya

• "What is the price of a thousand horses against a son where there is one son only?"- Maurya

• "She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping if she's able."-Cathleen

References

Synge, J.M.. The Complete Plays. 1st. New York: Vintage Books, 1935.

External links

• Riders to the Sea Full text of the play.

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