Lecture series continues this evening at the BIS

Greg Doran is the next speaker in this year’s Fall Lecture Series at the BIS in Charlottetown.

Doran, who will speak tonight, will present “Piety, Profanity, and Patricide: A Discussion of JM Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World”.

All talks take place on consecutive Friday evenings in the Katherine Hughes Memorial Hall on North River Road. There is no admission charge, and all are welcome to attend. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and talks begin at 7:30 p.m. Reservations are not required.

Doran’s talk will cover a variety of topics. He will present a brief biographical sketch of Synge and discuss the play’s place in expressing Irish nationalism.

He will examine it from a dramaturgical perspective, as well as discussing the practicalities of staging the play. Finally, he will place the play and its author within their historical context, comparing them to other playwrights and plays from the late 19th century and early 20th century. At the end of his talk, Doran will take questions.

Doran is the chairman of the English department and the coordinator of theatre studies at UPEI, where he has been a professor since 2004. He is a director of numerous plays, including “Playboy of the Western World”, and he is an active scholar in the areas of theatre production and actor training. He is also a recipient of the 2018 AAU Distinguished Teaching Award.