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History

Irish Literary Theatre

A poster for the opening run at the Abbey Theatre from 27 December 1904 to 3 January 1905The Abbey arose from three distinct bases, the first of which was the seminal Irish LiteraryTheatre. Founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and William Butler Yeats in 1899withassistance from George Moore[3] it presented plays in the Ancient Concert Rooms and theGaiety Theatre, which brought critical approval but limited public interest.

The second base involved the work of two Irish brothers, William and Frank Fay.[4] Williamworked in the 1890s with a touring company in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while Frank washeavily involved in amateur dramatics in Dublin. After William returned to Dublin, the Fay brothers staged productions in halls around the city and eventually formed W. G. Fay's Irish

National Dramatic Company, focused on the development of Irish acting talent. In April 1902,the Fays gave three performances of's playDeirdre and Yeats' Cathleen NHoulihan in a hallin St. Theresa's Hall on Clarendon Street. The performances played to a mainly working-classaudience rather than the usual middle-class Dublin theatregoers. The run was a great success,thanks in part to Maud Gonne, who played the lead in Yeats' play. The company continued at theAncient Concert Rooms, producing works by SeumasO'Cuisin, Fred Ryan and Yeats.

The third base was financial support and experience of Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman.Horniman was a middle-class Englishwoman with previous experience of theatre production,having been involved in the presentation of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man inLondon in 1894. She came to Dublin in 1903 to act as Yeats' unpaid secretary and to make

costumes for a production of his play The King's Threshold. Her money helped found the AbbeyTheatre and, according to the critic Adrian Frazier, would "make the rich feel at home, and thepooron a first visitout of place."[5]

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Foundation

Lady Gregory pictured on the frontispiece to Our Irish Theatre: A Chapter of Autobiography(1913)

Encouraged by the St Theresa's Hall success, Yeats, Lady Gregory, , Martyn, and JohnMillington Synge founded the Irish National Theatre Society in 1903 with funding fromHorniman. At first, they staged performances in the Molesworth Hall.[6] When the HibernianTheatre of Varieties in Lower Abbey Street and an adjacent building in Marlborough Street became available after fire safety authorities closed the Hibernia, Horniman and William Fayagreed to buy and refit the space to meet the society's needs. [7]

On 11 May 1904, the society formally accepted Horniman's offer of the use of the building. AsHorniman did not usually reside in Ireland, the royal letters patent required were granted in thename of Lady Gregory, although paid for by Horniman. The founders appointed William Faytheatre manager, responsible for training the actors in the newly established repertory company.

They commissioned Yeats' brotherJackto paint portraits of all the leading figures in the societyfor the foyer, and hired Sarah Purserto design stained glass for the same space.[8]

On 27 December, the curtains went up on opening night. The bill consisted of three one-actplays, On Baile's Strandand Cathleen NHoulihan by Yeats, and Spreading the News by LadyGregory. On the second night, In the Shadow of the Glen by Synge replaced the second Yeats play. These two bills alternated over a five-night run. Frank Fay, playing Cchulainn in OnBaile's Strand, was the first actor on the Abbey stage. [9] Although Horniman had designed thecostumes, neither she nor Lady Gregory were present. Horniman had returned to England. Inaddition to providing funding, her chief role with the Abbey over the coming years was toorganise publicity and bookings for their touring productions in London and provincial England.

In 1905 without properly consulting Horniman, Yeats, Lady Gregory and Synge decided to turnthe theatre into a limited liability company, the National Theatre Society Ltd.[10] Annoyed by thistreatment, she hired Ben Iden Payne, a former Abbey employee, to help run a new repertorycompany which she founded in Manchester.

Early year

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The new Abbey Theatre found great popular success, and large crowds attended many of its productions. The Abbey was fortunate in having Synge as a key member, as he was thenconsidered one of the foremost English-language dramatists. The theatre staged many plays byeminent or soon-to-be eminent authors, including Yeats, Lady Gregory, Moore, Martyn, PadraicColum, George Bernard Shaw, Oliver St John Gogarty, F. R. Higgins, Thomas MacDonagh,

Lord Dunsany, T. C. Murray, James Cousins and Lennox Robinson. Many of these authorsserved on the board, and it was during this time that the Abbey gained its reputation as a writers'theatre.

John Millington Synge, author ofThe Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots at theAbbey on the play's opening night.

The Abbey's fortunes worsened in January 1907 when the opening of Synge's The Playboy of theWestern World resulted in civil disturbance. The troubles (since known as the Playboy Riots)

were encouraged, in part, by nationalists who believed the theatre was insufficiently political andwho took offence at Synge's use of the word 'shift', as it was known at the time as a symbolrepresenting Kitty O'Shea and adultery, and hence was seen as a slight on the virtue of Irishwomanhood.[12] Much of the crowd rioted loudly, and the actors performed the remainder of the play in dumbshow.[13] The theatre's decision to call in the police further roused anger of thenationalists. Although press opinion soon turned against the rioters and the protests faded,management of the Abbey was shaken. They chose not to stage Synge's nextand lastcompletedplay, The Tinker's Wedding(1908), for fear of further disturbances. That same year,the Fay brothers' association with the theatre ended when they emigrated to the United States;Lennox Robinson took over the Abbey's day-to-day management.

In 1909, Shaw's The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet led to further protests. The subsequentdiscussion occupied a full issue of the theatre's journal The Arrow. Also that year, the proprietorsdecided to make the Abbey independent of Annie Horniman, who had indicated a preference forthis course. Relations with Horniman had been tense, partly because she wished to be involved inchoosing which plays were to be performed and when. As a mark of respect for the death ofKing Edward VII, an understanding existed that Dublin theatres were to close on the night of 7May 1910. Robinson, however, kept the Abbey open. [14] When Horniman heard of Robinson's

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decision, she severed her connections with the company.[15] By her own estimate, she hadinvested 10,350worth approximately $1 million in 2007 US dollarson the project.

With the loss of Horniman, Synge, and the Fays, the Abbey under Robinson tended to drift,suffering from falling public interest and box office returns. This trend was halted for a time by

the emergence ofSean O'Casey as an heir to Synge.

[16]

O'Casey's career as a dramatist beganwith The Shadow of a Gunman, staged by the Abbey in 1923. This was followed by Juno and thePaycockin 1924, and The Plough and the Stars in 1926. Theatregoers arose in riots over the lastplay, in a way reminiscent of those that had greeted thePlayboy 19 years earlier.[17] Concernedabout public reaction, the Abbey rejected O'Casey's next play. He emigrated to London shortlythereafter.[18]

In 1924, Yeats and Lady Gregory offered the Abbey to the government of the Free State as a giftto the Irish people. Although the government refused, the following year Minister of FinanceErnest Blythe arranged an annual government subsidy of 850 for the Abbey. This made thecompany the first state-supported theatre in the English-speaking world. [19] The subsidy allowed

the theatre to avoid bankruptcy, but the amount was too small to rescue it from financialdifficulty.

The Abbey School of Acting and the Abbey School of Ballet were set up that year. The latterwas led byNinette de Valoiswho had provided choreography for a number of Yeats' playsand ran until 1933.[20]

The Peacock and the Gate

Around this time the company acquired additional space, allowing them to create a smallexperimental theatre, the Peacock, in the ground floor of the main theatre. In 1928, Hilton

Edwards and MichelMacLiammoir launched the Gate Theatre, initially using the Peacock tostage works by European and American dramatists.[21] The Gate primarily sought work from newIrish playwrights and, despite the new space, the Abbey entered a period of artistic decline.

This is illustrated by the story of how one new work was said to have come to the Gate Theatre.Denis Johnston reportedly submitted his first play, Shadowdance, to the Abbey; however, LadyGregory rejected it, returning it to the author with The Old Lady says No written across thetitle page.[22] Johnston decided to re-title the play. The Gate staged The Old Lady Says 'No' inThe Peacock in 1928. (Note: academic critics Joseph Ronsley and Christine St. Peter havequestioned the veracity of this story.)[23]

After Yeats

The tradition of the Abbey as primarily a writers' theatre survived Yeats' withdrawal from day-to-day involvement. Frank O'Connor sat on the board from 1935 to 1939, served as managingdirector from 1937, and had two plays staged during this period. He was alienated from andunable to cope with many of the other board members. They held O'Connor's past adulteryagainst him. Although he fought formidably to retain his position, soon after Yeats died, theboard began machinations to remove O'Connor.[24][25]

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During the 1940s and 1950s, the staple fare at the Abbey was comic farce set in the idealisedpeasant world of playwright amon de Valera. If it had ever existed, it was no longer consideredrelevant by most Irish citizens. As a result, audience numbers continued to decline. This driftmight have been more dramatic but popular actors, including F. J. McCormick, and dramatists,including George Shiels, could still draw a crowd. Austin Clarke staged events for his Dublin

Verse Speaking Societylater the Lyric Theatre at the Peacock from 1941 to 1944 and theAbbey from 1944 to 1951.

On 17 July 1951, fire destroyed the Abbey Theatre, with only the Peacock surviving intact. [26]The company leased the old Queen's Theatre in September and continued in residence there until1966. The Queen's had been home to the Happy Gang, a team of comedians who specialised in popular skits, farces and pantomimes and drew wide audiences. With its continued diet of'peasant comedies', the new tenants were not far removed from the old.

Neither Brendan Behan nor Samuel Beckett, two of the more interesting Irish dramatists toemerge in the 1950s, featured in these productions. In February 1961, the ruins of the Abbey

were demolished. The board had plans for rebuilding with a design by the Irish architect MichaelScott. On 3 September 1963, the President of Ireland, amon de Valera, laid the foundationstone for the new theatre. The Abbey reopened on 18 July 1966. [27]

Recent years

New generation

A new building; a new generation of dramatists, including such figures as Hugh Leonard, BrianFriel and Tom Murphy; and tourism that included the National Theatre as a key culturalattraction, helped revive the theatre. Beginning in 1957, the theatre's participation in the Dublin

Theatre Festival aided its revival. Plays such as Brian Friel'sPhiladelphia Here I Come! (1964),The Faith Healer(1979) andDancing at Lughnasa (1990); Tom Murphy'sA Whistle In the Dark(1961) and The Gigli Concert(1983); and Hugh Leonard'sDa (1973) andA Life (1980), helpedraise the Abbey's international profile through successful runs in the West End in London, andon Broadway in New York City.

In December 2004, the theatre celebrated its centenary with events that included performances ofthe original programme by amateur dramatic groups and a production of Michael West's DublinBy Lamplight, originally staged by Annie Ryan forThe Corn Exchange company at the ProjectArts Centre in November 2004. Despite the centenary, not all was well. Audience numbers werefalling; the Peacock was closed for lack of money; the theatre was near bankruptcy, and the staff

felt the threat of huge lay-offs.

In September 2004 two members of the theatre's advisory council, playwrights Jimmy Murphyand Ulick O'Connor, had tabled a motion ofno confidence in Artistic Director Ben Barnes. Theycriticised Barnes for touring with a play in Australia during the deep financial and artistic crisisat home. Barnes returned and temporarily held his position.[28] The debacle put the Abbey undergreat public scrutiny. On 12 May 2005, Barnes and Managing Director Brian Jackson resigned

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after it was found that the theatre's deficit of 1.85 million had been underestimated.[29] The newdirector, Fiach Mac Conghail, due to start in January 2006, took over in May 2005. [30]

On 20 August 2005, the Abbey Theatre Advisory Council approved a plan to dissolve theAbbey's owner, the National Theatre Society, and replace it with a company limited by

guarantee, the Abbey Theatre Limited. After strong debate, the board accepted the program.Basing its actions on this plan, the Arts Council of Ireland awarded the Abbey 25.7 million inJanuary 2006 to be spread over three years. [30] The grant represented an approximate 43 percentincrease in the Abbey's revenues and was the largest grant ever awarded by the Arts Council. [31]The new company was established on 1 February 2006, with the announcement of a new AbbeyBoard chaired by High Court Judge Bryan McMahon. In March 2007, the larger auditorium inthe theatre was radically reconfigured by Jean-Guy Lecat as part of a major upgrade of thetheatre.

More than 20 writers have been commissioned by the Abbey since Mac Conghail was appointeddirector in May 2005.[32] The Abbey is also producing new Irish plays commissioned and

developed by London's Royal Court Theatre; Tom Murphy's Alice Trilogy and Marina Carr'sWoman and Scarecrow are examples. The Abbey is also developing a relationship with thePublic Theaterin New York, where it has presented two new plays; Terminus by Mark O'Roweand Sam Shepard'sKicking a Dead Horse.