X-Nico

13 unusual facts about Abbey Theatre


Abbey Theatre

The Abbey also developed a relationship with the Public Theater in New York, where it has presented two new plays; Terminus by Mark O'Rowe and Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse.

The Abbey arose from three distinct bases, the first of which was the seminal Irish Literary Theatre.

The six writers taking part in this pilot programme were: Aidan Harney, Lisa Keogh, Shona McCarthy, Jody O'Neill, Neil Sharpson and Lisa Tierney-Keogh.

Bernard O'Shea

He also worked in the National Theatre of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre.

Birdy Sweeney

Sweeney made minor appearances in several major films, including The Crying Game (1992), The Snapper (1993) The Butcher Boy (1997), and Angela's Ashes, and made his stage debut in the 1989 Dublin production of The Iceman Cometh at the Abbey Theatre.

Deirdre Donnelly

She is a former company member of the Abbey Theatre and has played leading roles in many theatre productions in Ireland.

Frederick John Horniman

Their daughter, Annie Horniman (1860–1937), worked in theatre, being a founder of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

Macdara Ó Fátharta

Prior to that he had spent two years with an acting school with the Abbey Theatre and subsequently twenty years with the Abbey.

Olwen Fouéré

As a free-lance actress, Fouéré's has worked with the Abbey Theatre, the Gate Theatre, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Radio Éireann Players

After the depredations of the war-time years and a devastating fire in the Abbey Theatre in 1951, the Radio Éireann Players' powerful weekly performances inspired interest in drama throughout the country.

Seán Mac Mathúna

In 1992 the Abbey Theatre produced The Winter Thief/Gadaí Géar na Geamhoíche in English and Irish on alternate nights, using the same cast.

Tom Sailí Ó Flaithearta

He had previously portrayed Seáinín Liam in a 1996 production of the play by the Abbey Theatre.

Young Cassidy

He writes a new play, The Plough and the Stars, which he submits to the Abbey Theatre (which had already rejected another of his plays, The Shadow of a Gunman), and is surprised when W.B. Yeats, the founder of the Abbey, accepts and produces his new play.


Augusta, Lady Gregory

With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies.

Celia de Fréine

Also in 2009 the Abbey Theatre commissioned her short play Casadh which was given a rehearsed reading at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin and at An Chultúrlann in Belfast as part of the Gach Áit Eile series.

Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

They sold it in 1965, and in the 1960s and the 1970s the theatre was run by Fred O'Donovan and the Eamonn Andrews Studios, until - in the 1980s - Joe Dowling (former Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre) became Director of the Gaiety.

Joe Dowling

He is also well known for his work as Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland, and has directed plays in all the major theatres in Ireland as well as theatres in London, New York, Washington D.C., Montreal, and Alberta.

John Gabriel Borkman

In 2010 a revival of the play was performed in the Abbey Theatre as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival.

Jolyon Jackson

Jackson also involved himself in music for the theatre, most notably in the music for the Yeats trilogy based on the Saga of Cuchulain, performed in the Noh style and directed by Hideo Kanze at the Abbey Theatre, and later in music to accompany the exercises of the Gurdjieff Movement.

Lennox Robinson

Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson (4 October 1886 - 15 October 1958) was an Irish dramatist, poet and theatre producer and director who was involved with the Abbey Theatre.

Mary Devenport O'Neill

Bluebeard, a ballet based on her play, was choreographed by Ninette de Valois as one of the final productions of the Abbey school of ballet.

Suzy Lawlor

She continued her theatrical appearance as Betty Paris in the acclaimed production of The Crucible directed by Patrick Mason at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.