Riders to the Sea

Riders to the Sea is a one-act play by J.M. Synge [1] (1871–1909) .

The original text

A poetic work, perhaps one of the best one-act plays ever written, with dialogue in Synge's version of the Gaelic dialect of the Aran islands, sometimes referred to as "Hyberno-English"[2], a form Synge used consumately in his plays.

First performed on 25 February 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, by the Irish National Theater Society.

First published in The Shadow of the Glen. Riders to the Sea by Elkin Mathews, London 1905. Later taken up in the various version of Collected Plays by John M. Synge. (i.a. Harmondsworth, Middlesex [Eng.] : Penguin Books, 1952).

Translations and adaptations

Translated or adapted into a number of languages, including a number of times into French (e.g. as À cheval vers la mer, Cavaliers à la mer and Cavaliers vers la mer).

Adaptations include Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar (or Señora Carrar's Rifles ) by Bertolt Brecht, a dance piece by Mary Anthony called Threnody, four operas, three using the same title (the first by Vaughan Williams in 1927) and one called Spindrift, and at least two film versions. The first, an Irish film by Brian Desmond Hurst, featured Sara Allgood and Synge's bereaved fiancée Marie O'Neill.

At least .

Fi

Cinema[edit]

At least two motion picture versions of the play have been made: One of the earliest examples of Irish film in 1935 a 40-minute black-and-white movie directed by Brian Desmond Hurst with screenplay adaptation by Patrick Kirwan with Sara Allgood and, notably, Synge's bereaved fiancée Marie O'Neill. Hurst had been mentored in Hollywood by John Ford, and Ruth Barton describes scenes in the film as "remarkably Fordian." A 1987 47-minute color movie directed and adapted by Ronan O'Leary with Geraldine Page.

Opera[edit]

The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) made an almost verbatim setting of the play as an opera, using the same title (1927).

Bruce Montgomery (1927–2008) wrote a light opera, Spindrift (1963), that was based on Riders to the Sea.

German composer Eduard Pütz (1911–2000) also set the play as an opera, using the same title (1972).

American composer Marga Richter (born 1926) also set the play as a one-act opera, using the same title (1996).

Dance[edit]

Mary Anthony's piece is titled Threnody.

Stage[edit]

Translated into Afrikaans by C.W. Hudson as Na die See ("to the sea"), published in Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 11(3):98-107, 1961.

Performance history in South Africa

1976: Performed as part of a double bill of plays by J M Synge (Riders to the Sea and The Shadow of the Glen), directed by Beth Dickerson, with Contemporary Dance '76, directed by Gary Gordon, in April.

Sources

NELM catalogue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_to_the_Sea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Millington_Synge

Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 11(3):98-107, 1961

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