Flyer advertising The Well of the Saints, A New Play in Three Acts

J. M. Synge

Flyer advertising The Well of the Saints, A New Play in Three Acts

February 4, 1905

J. M. Synge’s The Well of the Saints was the only other three-act play, in addition to The Playboy of the Western World, that he saw performed at the Abbey Theatre during his lifetime. Adapted from a fable he heard on the Aran Islands about a miracle well that could cure blindness, he likened the play to “a monochrome painting, all in shades of one colour.” Samuel Beckett was a deep admirer of Synge’s work, and The Well of the Saints has been called a precursor to Waiting for Godot.