Riders to the Sea

Riders to the Sea (1904) is a one-act Irish play by John Millington Synge, originally performed in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The play portrays the events of one day in the cottage of a low-income family living on Inishmaan, one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, as they cope with the loss of male relatives to the rough waters between the islands and mainland Ireland. This short play incorporates themes such as The Contrast Between Christianity and Pagan Mysticism, The Role of Place and Nature in Irish Culture, and The Relationship Between Tragedy and Catharsis.

This guide references the 1993 Dover Thrift Edition, which contains both Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World (1907).

Plot Summary

Riders to the Sea opens on a small cottage on the island of Inishmaan, one of the three Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. A young woman, Cathleen, cares for the household as her younger sister, Nora, enters with a small bundle. Nora explains that their priest gave her the bundle of clothing, which washed up on shore, and asked that she and her sister identify whether the clothes belonged to their brother Michael, who is missing after a sea crossing.