And the Irish Theatre Movement
By
Elizabeth Abernathy
 Establish in 1904 in Dublin
 It grew out of the Irish
Literary Theatre founded
in 1899 by William Butler
Yeats, and Isabella
Augusta, Lady Gregory.
 The Abbey opened up in
December of 1904 with a
bill of plays by Yeats, Lady
Gregory, and John
Millington Synge
 1st State-subsidized theatre
in the English-speaking
world.
 Closely associated with the
writers of the Celtic Revival
I
mportant
 William Butler Yeats – co
Figures in Abbey
Theatre





William Butler Yeats
director
Lady Gregory – co director
Edward Martyn
William and Frank Fay (formed
W. G. Fay’s Irish National
Dramatic Company)
Annie Elizabeth Fredericka
Horniman – funding
John Millington Synge - co
director
 Jan 26. 1907 staging of
Synge’s satire The
Playboy of the Western
World caused a riot over
resentment of the
portrayal of the Irish
peasantry.
 May 7, 1910 when all the
other theatres in the city
were closed in respect for
the death of King
Edward VII, the Abbey
was kept open.
 1926 Sean O’Casey’s The
Plough and the Stars
caused riots similar to
the Playboy Riots.














Yeats
Lady Gregory
Moore
Martyn
Padraic Colum
George Bernard Shaw
Oliver St. John Gogarty
Wilfrid Blunt
F. R. Higgins
Thomas MacDonagh (one of the leaders of
the Easter Rising in 1916)
Lord Dunsany
T. C. Murray
Lennox Robinson
Sean O’ Casey
Famous
Writers
Synge, as a key
member of the
Abbey Theatre
greatly aided in its
success.
 The Nationalist Movement
 Used theatre to establish strong sense of national identity
 The Irish Literary Movement
 Aimed to overcome the feeling of cultural inferiority by advocating a return
to Irish Mythologies and Legends
 The Socialist Movement
 Aims of improving status of workers in society, mainly between 1912-1916
 The Suffragist Movement
 Status of women, mostly in years 1912-1915, specifically calling for women’s
right to vote.
The Abbey provided an output for the Nationalist movement in artistic form.
Through the Abbey Theatre and other theatres, Irish culture began to surface
and reestablish itself.
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/561/Abb




ey-Theatre
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Abbey_
Theatre
http://www.jstor.org/pss/25489634
http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/eich_01/eich_
01_00229.html
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/contactus/news/imag
es/2008/MayAbbeyTheatre.jpg