August 20, 1904—With the aid of a wealthy Englishwoman, the Irish National Theatre Society was about to end a nomadic existence that saw it in five different venues in six years when the troupe purchased a lot on Old Abbey Street in Dublin.
The facility—site of the old Merchants’ Institute, with additional property tagged onto the site from an adjacent lot that had once housed a morgue—was retrofitted to become the Abbey Theatre, a driving force in the Irish Literary Renaissance that would later produce the plays of John Millington Synge, Sean O’Casey, George Bernard Shaw, and William Butler Yeats.
One of the more interesting quotes I came across while researching this post came from an exceptionally unusual source: Theodore Roosevelt, in a piece published in The Outlook in December 1911:
“In the Abbey Theatre Lady Gregory and those associated with her–and Americans should feel proud of the fact that an American was one of the first to give her encouragement and aid–have not only made an extraordinary contribution to the sum of Irish literary and artistic achievement, but have done more for the drama than has been accomplished in any other nation of recent years. England, Australia South Africa, Hungary, and Germany are all now seeking to profit by this unique achievement.”
Take a look at that quote. Today, for theater aficionados, it merely states the obvious. In the Abbey’s early days, however, this was really going out on a limb, and Roosevelt should be accorded due credit for foresight—and, indeed, you can consider it done here.
Nevertheless, you’re undoubtedly wondering: why did I call T.R. an “exceptionally unusual” source about this? Well, consider:
* He was an inveterate Anglophile, with not a great amount of relish for things Irish—and, judging from his interactions with members of Tammany Hall in his first days in politics, not a terrible amount of affection or understanding for Irish emigrants to the U.S.
The facility—site of the old Merchants’ Institute, with additional property tagged onto the site from an adjacent lot that had once housed a morgue—was retrofitted to become the Abbey Theatre, a driving force in the Irish Literary Renaissance that would later produce the plays of John Millington Synge, Sean O’Casey, George Bernard Shaw, and William Butler Yeats.
One of the more interesting quotes I came across while researching this post came from an exceptionally unusual source: Theodore Roosevelt, in a piece published in The Outlook in December 1911:
“In the Abbey Theatre Lady Gregory and those associated with her–and Americans should feel proud of the fact that an American was one of the first to give her encouragement and aid–have not only made an extraordinary contribution to the sum of Irish literary and artistic achievement, but have done more for the drama than has been accomplished in any other nation of recent years. England, Australia South Africa, Hungary, and Germany are all now seeking to profit by this unique achievement.”
Take a look at that quote. Today, for theater aficionados, it merely states the obvious. In the Abbey’s early days, however, this was really going out on a limb, and Roosevelt should be accorded due credit for foresight—and, indeed, you can consider it done here.
Nevertheless, you’re undoubtedly wondering: why did I call T.R. an “exceptionally unusual” source about this? Well, consider:
* He was an inveterate Anglophile, with not a great amount of relish for things Irish—and, judging from his interactions with members of Tammany Hall in his first days in politics, not a terrible amount of affection or understanding for Irish emigrants to the U.S.
* Despite a larger-than-life personality that lent itself repeatedly to dramatists and screenwriters (e.g., The Wind and the Lion), T.R. did not, unlike George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, evince much interest in the theater.
* Since returning from his African game-hunting sojourn (a far more characteristic TR activity!), Roosevelt’s attention had been increasingly absorbed by the passive, conservative tendencies of his successor in the Presidency, William Howard Taft—so much so that he was considering splitting the Republican Party by challenging Taft for another term.
* The hyperactive T.R. seemed constitutionally incapable of sitting still for a minute, so imagining him sitting for two hours watching a performance not his own boggles the mind.
Roosevelt showed his support for the Abbey at a crucial time in its American tour: Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World was sparking protests, just as it had in Dublin at its premiere. His praise came at the urging of his blueblooded Boston friend, art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner—who, in turn, was spurred on by Lady Gregory.
It was natural that Lady Gregory would spearhead this effort. Though not considered one of the geniuses of the Irish Literary Renaissance, it is inconceivable that this movement—and, in particular, the Abbey Theatre—could have come to fruition without her.
It wasn’t only that this member of the Protestant Ascendancy encouraged (and sometimes even financially supported) some of the male members of the group; that she wrote 25 plays herself, many of which were among the most popular mounted by the theater in its early years; or that she was a director of the institution from its founding until her death in 1932.
No, the playwright-folklorist also served as proselytizer and businesswoman behind what might have seemed initially like a hopelessly quixotic venture.
Annie Horniman, an enthusiastic if eccentric theater aficionado, agreed to fund the project, but because she resided in England, the patent from the royal crown required to operate the theater needed someone from Ireland. (It was probably just as well that Ms. Horniman stayed somewhat in the background—had opponents of the theater known that she’d based her funding decision on a tarot-card reading, there’s no telling what use they would have put this knowledge.) That turned out to be Lady Gregory.
For all its contributions to Irish culture, the Abbey Theatre had a difficult time just surviving in its early days. In contrast, the company often played to packed houses when it toured the U.K. and U.S.
The theater was also, of course, not without controversy. The best-known battles were waged against patriotically correct rioters screaming against Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. But even the in-house battles that resulted in the exiles of O’Casey and Frank O’Connor could be enervating.
And yet, the group’s glories endure. To Ireland’s eternal credit, the Abbey became, in 1924, the first state-subsidized theater in the English-speaking world. It awakened not just a country but a world to the possibilities of a dramatic movement based on authenticity rather than on melodrama.
One who felt the influence most powerfully was Eugene O’Neill, the first indisputably great American playwright, who noted: “As a boy I saw so much of the old, ranting, artificial, romantic stage stuff that I always had a sort of contempt for the theatre. It was seeing the Irish players for the first time that gave me a glimpse of my opportunity."
For all its contributions to Irish culture, the Abbey Theatre had a difficult time just surviving in its early days. In contrast, the company often played to packed houses when it toured the U.K. and U.S.
The theater was also, of course, not without controversy. The best-known battles were waged against patriotically correct rioters screaming against Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. But even the in-house battles that resulted in the exiles of O’Casey and Frank O’Connor could be enervating.
And yet, the group’s glories endure. To Ireland’s eternal credit, the Abbey became, in 1924, the first state-subsidized theater in the English-speaking world. It awakened not just a country but a world to the possibilities of a dramatic movement based on authenticity rather than on melodrama.
One who felt the influence most powerfully was Eugene O’Neill, the first indisputably great American playwright, who noted: “As a boy I saw so much of the old, ranting, artificial, romantic stage stuff that I always had a sort of contempt for the theatre. It was seeing the Irish players for the first time that gave me a glimpse of my opportunity."
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