Abbey theatre

views updated May 17 2018

Abbey theatre. First permanent home of the Irish National Theatre, founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and W. B. Yeats to foster native drama. Yeats's verse play On Baile's Strand was the opening production in 1904 but more dramatic scenes came four years later with riots at the first night of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. Controversy also surrounded the staging of plays by Shaw and O'Casey, though the latter's The Shadow of a Gunman marked a decisive shift from Celtic twilight to Dublin tenement. The original building, on the corner of Abbey Street, was destroyed by fire in 1951.

John Saunders

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