Fay, Frank J. (1870–1931) and
William George (1872–1947), Irish actors, who in 1892 formed the Ormonde Dramatic Society, playing in Dublin and the surrounding country in a repertory of sketches, short plays, and farces. Among their fellow actors were Dudley
Digges and
Sara Allgood, who were associated with them in 1898 in the
Irish National Dramatic Society and in 1904 went with them to the
Abbey Theatre. Frank, who was interested in verse-speaking, was responsible for the company's speech training, while W. G. acted as stage-manager. Both brothers appeared in most of the plays produced at the Abbey, W. G. playing Christy Mahon in
Synge's The Playboy of the Western World (1907) and
Frank his rival Shawn Keogh. In 1908, after a disagreement with
Yeats and Lady
Gregory over artistic control, the Fays left the Abbey and went to America, where they directed a repertory of Irish plays for Charles
Frohman, W. G. making his first appearance on Broadway in Yeats's
The Pot of Broth. Moving to London in 1914, W. G. was seen in several new plays and was successively a director at the Nottingham and
Birmingham Repertory theatres. Among his later parts were the Tramp in Synge's
In the Shadow of the Glen (1928); Mr Cassidy in
Bridie's Storm in a Teacup (1936), which he also directed; and the title-role in Paul Vincent
Carroll's Father Malachy's Miracle (1945). Frank returned to Dublin in 1918 and became a teacher of elocution, going back briefly to the Abbey in 1925 to play in a revival of Yeats's
The Hour-Glass.
