A later visitor[43] to the Aran Islands, Miss B. N. Hedderman, a district nurse, gives further evidences of the simplicity of those people from whom the characters of Riders to the Sea were drawn. She tells of a man who owned a house with two comfortable rooms in it, one of which he leveled ruthlessly because he had dreamed that it hindered the passage of the "good people." The illustrations in her little book showing cottage interiors and peasant costumes will be found useful by groups who are planning to produce Riders to the Sea. But the best guide to the costumes and social life of the West of Ireland is J. B. Yeats.[44]
The Drama Calendar of December 13, 1920, offers the following suggestion for a musical setting for the play: "The attention of Little Theatre directors is called to a musical prelude to Synge's Riders to the Sea, arranged by Henry F. Gilbert from the Symphonic Prologue, which was played at the Worcester Musical Festival this fall. This original arrangement of the material is intended to build the mood which the play sustains, and is simply orchestrated for seven instruments. Every Little Theatre should be able to gather such an orchestra. Here is an opportunity to give continuity to a program of one-acts; music answers a question which is one of the hardest the director has to solve: how a mood which is to be created and sustained in the brief space of twenty minutes shall not be too fleeting."
RIDERS TO THE SEA
A PLAY IN ONE ACT
First performed at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, February 25, 1904.
- CHARACTERS
- Maurya, an old woman.
- Bartley, her son.
- Cathleen, her daughter.
- Nora, a younger daughter.
- Men and Women.
SCENE.—An Island off the West of Ireland.
Cottage kitchen, with nets, oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall, etc. Cathleen, a girl of about twenty, finishes kneading cake, and puts it down in the pot-oven by the fire; then wipes her hands, and begins to spin at the wheel. Nora, a young girl, puts her head in at the door.
Nora [in a low voice]. Where is she?
Cathleen. She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's able. [Nora comes in softly, and takes a bundle from under her shawl.]
Cathleen [spinning the wheel rapidly]. What is it you have?