Act I of The Playboy of the Western World opens in a bar on the west coast of Ireland. The bar owner’s daughter, Margaret Flaherty (called Pegeen Mike), is working alone. She is interrupted by the arrival of her second-cousin Shawn Keogh, a young farmer who is vying for her heart. He asks where her father has gone, and Pegeen Mike tells him that Michael James, her father, left to attend a wake. Shawn comments that it seems odd for him to be going to a wake so late at night, especially when it means leaving his daughter alone at the bar. Pegeen Mike agrees, bemoaning the fact that she must spend the night alone and afraid. Shawn remarks that she won’t have to worry about that once they are married. According to Shawn, the two are set to wed, pending the dispensation from the Catholic Church. Pegeen Mike shrugs him off, scoffing at his confidence in their betrothal, and again asks how she can be expected to spend the night at the bar all by herself.

Shawn reveals that perhaps Pegeen Mike has reason to be afraid, for on his way in to see her, he heard what sounded like a young man in a nearby ditch, “groaning wicked like a maddening dog” (10).