SNIPPET: The Abbey production of John Millington SYNGE's 'The Playboy of the Western World," directed by Ben BARNES, will tour the following U.S. cities: New Haven, Boston, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia from Fri. 24 Sept to Sun 19 Dec 2004. Website: www.abbeytheatre.ie. "SYNGE wrote of a people that he knew and loved almost a hundred years ago; but, with the instinctive genius of a true artist, he created characters which are still as recognisable today as they were then, " per Jo KERRIGAN, a freelance writer living in Macroom, Co. Cork, in her eight-page story about the history of the Abbey and its most famous play in the Sept-Oct 2004 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. "SYNGE was a man who loved the natural speech and manners of the Irish peasantry and spent long periods staying with families on the West coast, on the Aran Islands, on the Blaskets, listening to conversations, watching daily routine, committing to memory all the turns and twists of their decorative and creative use of our native language. They spoke naturally in Irish; he translated it literally into the English tongue with truly delightful results." She goes on to say, "It is not always realised how different a sentence can be in Irish or English. For example, an Englishman on being asked for directions may say, 'That is the road to take;' whereas in Irish it would be something like, 'I'd say now that the best way for you to be doing it would be to go along there now until you see a small boreen on the left, but don't take that one at all, it's no good to you, just keep going on until you see a house on the right, and isn't it my own cousins's house, and he'll put you right if you're going wrong, but on beyond that a field with a brown cow in it and she might have the calf with her yet, you wouldn't know...." and so on, until you end up by being best friends and going home with him for a cup of tea. This was the way of talking which enraptured SYNGE and which he reflected as faithfully as possible in "The Playboy of the Western World" which he wrote for his friends and colleagues - Lady GREGORY, William Butler YEATS,! Lennox ROBINSON, et al - at Ireland's then very new National Theatre, the Abbey in the heart of Dublin." The magazine contains old post-bills, front-page headlines with actors' photos from a January 1912 "Philadelphia Evening Telegraph" newspaper, theatre tickets, a programme cover from the Maxine ELLIOTT Theatre, NY, 1911-12, when the Abbey Theatre Company performed "Playboy" during their first American Tour, a drawing of J. M. SYNGE by John Butler YEATS in 1905, a Programme of of the Lyric and Adelphi Theatres, Philadelphia, 1911-12. The entire cast was arrested there on "indecency charges" but later released on bail. Eventually the fuss died down; and over the years that followed the play became of the staple of the Abbey repertoire, with performances by the theaters' finest players of succeeding generations. These old photos and momentos hold a special meaning for Ms. KERRIGAN: Her "Uncle Joe" was actor J. M. KERRIGAN, born in Drumcondra, north Dublin, in 1887, a member of the fledgling national theatre. He directed some silent pictures with newly formed Film Company of Ireland, using family and friends as cast. Passionately interested in the stage, he toured America several times with the Abbey Theatre company. Jo has her uncle's worn, but treasured, 1907 copy of "Playboy," with his signature, and there is a nice photo of him accompanying the article. Mr. KERRIGAN, who died in 1964, appeared in over a hundred Hollywood films including "My Cousin Rachel." A star on Hollywood Boulevard bears his name.