Inis Nua presents Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle’s adaptation of John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World

Well, appearances can be deceiving. Inis Nua—the company that has presented contemporary works from Ireland, Scotland, and the UK in Philadelphia for nearly 20 years—indeed opens its season with this cornerstone of Irish drama. The version it’s using, though, is not the traditional 1907 text by John Millington Synge. Instead, the company chose a clever adaptation by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle, premiered 100 years later, that vaults this still-shocking story into the 21st century and remains in keeping with the company’s mission.

A contemporary take on Synge

Adigun and Doyle transport the action from rural County Mayo to Dublin, and although several plot particulars remain the same, the proceedings take on a decidedly contemporary feel. In Synge’s original, a band of sheltered country folk become obsessed with a mysterious lad who arrives at their bar, claiming to have killed his father. There’s nothing especially remarkable about Christy Mahon aside from his (potentially tall) tale, but he becomes a repository for the characters’ unfulfilled lives and wishes.

In this adaptation, Christy Mahon becomes Christopher Malomo, a Nigerian migrant whose presence reflects the country’s immigration trends in the early 2000s and injects a feeling of exoticism into his outsider status. Moboluwaji Ademide Akintilo captures the enigmatic quality that makes the Dubliners’ projections feel especially sensational, adding an additional layer of meaning through differences in appearance and culture. Akintilo’s performance strikes the right balance between calm surface and menacing subtext, leaving the truthfulness of his stories an open question.

A spirited cast

Like Synge, Adigun and Doyle populate their barroom with a spirited cast of characters. Director Kathryn MacMillan fosters a lively company that moves seamlessly between broad comedy and wrenching emotions. As Michael Flaherty, the bar’s shady owner, Anthony Lawton holds the viewer in stitches, then turns terrifying on a dime. The same can be said for his ham-fisted associates, played by Andrew Criss and Owen Corey. Widow Quinn, herself a notorious figure in the community, comes to vivacious life in the hands of K. O’Rourke, costumed in a succession of eye-catching outfits by Barbara Erin Delo. Anna Faye Lieberman, Sydney Abbott, and Leanna Doyle inject welcome comic relief into the proceedings as a trio of local girls who regard Christopher like a long-lost Beatle.

Any production of The Playboy of the Western World lives and dies on the chemistry between Christopher and Pegeen, the spirited young woman who runs the pub with an iron tongue, if not always an iron fist. Here, Akintilo and the extraordinary Taylor Congdon have charisma to burn. In her second mainstage role with Inis Nua (following Abi Morgan’s LoveSong in June of this year), Congdon proves to be a major discovery for the Philadelphia theater scene, and not just because she can nail a flawless Irish accent. Her endlessly creative vocal and physical choices make it so you can’t take your eyes off her whenever she’s on stage.

An ambitious hit

The Playboy of the Western World is easily the most ambitious undertaking for this company in many seasons—surely since MacMillan became artistic director in 2022. (The large cast also includes Michael Stahler as Pegeen’s wimpy fiancé and Chuk Obasi, in a role I won’t spoil.) It’s also the most satisfying offering I can recall from them in some time. In simultaneously embracing and revising the traditions of Irish theater, Inis Nua has an undeniable hit on its hands.