Robinson, (Esmé Stuart) Lennox (1886–1958), Irish dramatist, actor, director, and critic. His first play,
The Clancy Name (1908), was staged at the
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, of which he was still a director at his death. In his early plays—
The Cross Roads (1909),
Harvest (1910),
Patriots (1912),
The Dreamers (1913)—he treated political and patriotic themes as matter for tragedy, with no weakening into sentiment; but his comedy
The White-Headed Boy (1916; London, 1920; NY, 1934) first made him known outside his own country. Like
Crabbed Youth and Age (1922; NY, 1932), it showed his skill as a structural craftsman and as a creator of character in the style of the comedy of manners. In
The Big House (1926; NY, 1933; London, 1934), Robinson became the first Irishman to write a play on the changing order of Ireland's civilization, but in
The Far-Off Hills (1928; London, 1929; NY, 1932) and
Church Street (Dublin and NY, 1934) he returned to comedy, in which his best work was done, achieving in the latter a tragi-comedy or ‘mingled drama’ whose satire was genial and whose ironies were tragic. His later works included
All's Over Then (1932; London, 1934);
Is Life Worth Living? (also known as
Drama at Inish, Dublin, London, and NY, 1933);
Killycreggs in Twilight (1937; London, 1940); and
The Lucky Finger (1948).
