Abbey Theatre
Ireland's national theatre, founded by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, on Lower Abbey Street.
The Abbey Theatre is the national theatre of Ireland. It grew out of the Irish Literary Theatre and opened on 27 December 1904, founded by W. B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory and others with financial backing from Annie Horniman. The first building, converted by Joseph Holloway from the Mechanics' Institute and the former city morgue, became closely identified with the Irish Literary Revival and with playwrights such as J. M. Synge and Sean O'Casey.
Riots greeted the premieres of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World in 1907 and O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars in 1926. In 1925 the Abbey became the first state-subsidised theatre in the English-speaking world. Fire destroyed the original building in 1951, and the company performed at the Queen's Theatre until a new house designed by Michael Scott opened on the same site in 1966. It contains the main Abbey stage and the smaller Peacock studio.
Highlights
- Founded in 1904 by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory
- Premiered Synge's The Playboy of the Western World in 1907
- Main Abbey stage and the studio-scale Peacock Theatre
- Backstage tours of the national theatre, including in Irish
