Last year when Garry Hynes asked me to edit a book on Synge I realised that a great seachange
had taken place in relation to his work. Once he would have been viewed by many readers and
writers as an old-fashioned figure whose influence was harmful whose stage-Irishness was not
to be taken seriously. Now he has become a fascinating and ambiguous genius whose language is
rich with wit and nuance and unpredictability. He worked as Yeats said with a living speech
and the way he worked his ingenuity his style has come to mean a lot to contemporary
writers. The gap between his own shyness his quietness and the noise his characters make is a
great example of the gap between the being who suffers and the mind which creates. Although he
was mild-mannered he had no respect for current pieties and he made this part of the fierce
and uncompromising energy of his plays. Also his book on the Aran Islands so careful
watchful respectful is understood by all of us to be a masterpiece. Thus it was not hard to
approach writers to contribute a piece on Synge to help produce a book as varied and
unpredictable as Synge's own work. The brief was open - use any form any length to pay homage
to Synge or argue with him or conjure up the writer who has become our contemporary. It meant
a lot that we were doing this for the Druid Synge Season - when all six major plays will be
presented in repertory for the first time - because the Druid Synge productions over the past
quarter century have more than anything else been responsible for our fresh understanding of
Synge's genius.
