'The Playboy of the Western World' review — Nicola Coughlan leads a stylish revival full of lust and longing

Read our review of John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, now in performances at the National Theatre to 28 February 2026.

Summary

• John Millington Synge's 1907 play is revived at the National Theatre
• The story sees Christy Mahon become a heartthrob when he claims to have killed his father
• Nicola Coghlan and Siobhan McSweeney are reunited in the excellent cast
• Caitriona McLaughlin’s stylish production is both funny and moving

The Playboy of the Western World might strictly speaking be classed as a comedy, but as the formerly no-nonsense, self-assured barmaid Peegeen (a nuanced Nicola Coughlan) sits crumpled on the floor in its final moments, letting out a guttural wail, it’s not so clear-cut. Nothing is, really, in John Millington Synge’s 1907 play, where the arrival of a mysterious traveller causes chaos in a tight-knit rural Irish community in County Mayo.

The play sparked riots when it premiered in Dublin, in part because of its portrayal of virtuous women fawning over a criminal, but also for its sullying of the rural idyll image of Western Ireland held in the capital at the time. There are no rainbows and fairies here; instead, it’s a place of limerence and longing, where the village folk are both fearful of outsiders and desperate for fresh blood. In Caitríona McLaughlin’s stylish and stylised production, all of this is captured vividly.

Like its genre, its characters aren’t easy to box, because none of them are purely virtuous or entirely rotten. And through his multi-shaded creations, Synge explores the complexity of our desires and relationships. When the titular playboy Christy Mahon (a well-cast Éanna Hardwicke, dopey but determined) shows up with a tale of having killed his “da”, instead of being horrified, the local women walk miles to swoon over him, thrilled to meet someone so wicked.

There’s great direction from McLaughlin here, as a parade of beautiful young lasses appear with gifts, practically quivering with lust. But ahead of all of them is Widow Quin (a slippery, hard-nosed Siobhán McSweeney), ready to fight the equally hopeful, but dutifully cautious Peegen.

Seeing his crime is his calling card, Christy doubles down on his story. And in what could arguably be described as an early observation of girls loving a bad boy, Christy is pitted against the timid, too-soft-for-his-own-good Shawn Keogh (aptly gentle Marty Rea), who Peegen refuses to marry. (To be fair, he’s also her second cousin, not that this really comes into it.) But Synge suggests Christy’s feelings for Peegen are at least genuine, and his motives to marry her well-intentioned, despite the trouble with his dad – which isn’t quite what it initially seems.

McLaughlin’s production takes a scene to settle into. Accents are thick and conversation is heavily localised. But once acclimatised, it’s transfixing. You sense how deeply religion is entrenched through the many “god bless you”s, as characters enter and exit the pub, and through expressionist touches, folkloric traditions – from women mourning head-to-toe in black, to strawboys strumming instruments – are woven into the background. Erin Hennessey’s fiddle playing, which travels through lilting jigs to mournful airs, adds further atmosphere.

Katie Davenport’s design is utterly gorgeous, with a colour palette of mossy tones spreading through the costumes and decorations of the barn-cum-bar set, where an open fire is constantly flickering, and behind the stage a vast sky somehow captures the sense of open expanse stretching as far as the eye can see. That sky shifts from misty grey through blues and eventually to blushing red, as tempers rise and the tables turn on the roaming chancer.

If you don’t know whether to laugh or cry by the end, you’ll still leave satisfied, with plenty to chew over.

The Playboy of the Western World is at the National Theatre to 28 February 2026. Check back for The Playboy of the Western World tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: The Playboy of the Western World (Photos by Marc Brenner)