Michael, Jimmy, Philly and Pegeen interrogate Christy about the nature of his crime, which he eventually reveals to be patricide-murdering his father. He is tired, frightened and dirty, and on the run from the law. Shawn soon returns, scared that the man from the ditch is chasing him. Michael, Jimmy and Philly try to convince Shawn to stay over, who dodges past his future father-in-law and runs out of the pub. Pegeen tells her father of her fear of being alone during the night.

The three men are about to go to the wake, an occasion that will last all night and involve a lot of drinking. Soon, Michael Flaherty comes in with his friends, Jimmy Farrell and Philly O’Cullen. Pegeen is exasperated that Shawn was too cowardly to investigate. Pegeen berates him for being so god-fearing, and Shawn makes things worse when he lets slip that, on his way over, he heard what sounded like a young man “groaning wicked like a maddening dog” in a ditch. Shawn is too afraid of what the local priest, Father Reilly, would think if he were to stay overnight with Pegeen, especially as he needs permission from the priest to approve their wedding between cousins. When Shawn comes into the pub, Pegeen tells him of her worry of being left alone in the pub all night-her father, the pub owner Michael Flaherty, is going to be at a wake. The pub’s young barmaid, Margaret Flaherty, better known as Pegeen Mike, is making a list of items she needs for her upcoming wedding to Shawn Keogh, her second cousin.

The Playboy of the Western World takes place in a run-down pub in the countryside of the North West of Ireland in the early 1900s.

Playboy of the western world jm synge