Lauren Arrington
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199590575
- eISBN:
- 9780191595523
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590575.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book utilizes new source material and documents that have not previously been analysed with regard to the Abbey Theatre's history in order to reconstruct the political, socio‐religious, and ...
More
This book utilizes new source material and documents that have not previously been analysed with regard to the Abbey Theatre's history in order to reconstruct the political, socio‐religious, and economic forces that exerted pressure on the theatre's programme. These pressures resulted in a complex dynamic: the theatre's directors (including W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory) publicly defied attempts to censor the Abbey's programme in order to create profitable controversies, while they privately self‐censored plays when they anticipated an opportunity for financial gain. It argues that plays that have not previously been regarded as censored should be recognized as such in light of the political and financial pressures that motivated their suppression. Furthermore, it argues that W. B. Yeats was not an uncompromising champion of artistic freedom, as he is remembered; rather, Yeats was willing to sacrifice the freedom of the artist when he foresaw a chance to ensure the longevity of his theatre.Less
This book utilizes new source material and documents that have not previously been analysed with regard to the Abbey Theatre's history in order to reconstruct the political, socio‐religious, and economic forces that exerted pressure on the theatre's programme. These pressures resulted in a complex dynamic: the theatre's directors (including W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory) publicly defied attempts to censor the Abbey's programme in order to create profitable controversies, while they privately self‐censored plays when they anticipated an opportunity for financial gain. It argues that plays that have not previously been regarded as censored should be recognized as such in light of the political and financial pressures that motivated their suppression. Furthermore, it argues that W. B. Yeats was not an uncompromising champion of artistic freedom, as he is remembered; rather, Yeats was willing to sacrifice the freedom of the artist when he foresaw a chance to ensure the longevity of his theatre.
Lauren Arrington
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199590575
- eISBN:
- 9780191595523
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590575.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter concludes, starting with looking at how vital it is to consider scholarly work on the history of the Abbey Theatre for getting a full, accurate representation of the multivalent ...
More
This chapter concludes, starting with looking at how vital it is to consider scholarly work on the history of the Abbey Theatre for getting a full, accurate representation of the multivalent pressures that impacted upon the theatre's productions and the institution's relationship with the state. The profit-incentive driving the directors, the objections of actors and managers, the sensibilities of conservative social pressure groups, and the ideological sensitivities of the state constituted internal and external forces of censorship that were not unique to the Abbey Theatre nor particular to Ireland.Less
This chapter concludes, starting with looking at how vital it is to consider scholarly work on the history of the Abbey Theatre for getting a full, accurate representation of the multivalent pressures that impacted upon the theatre's productions and the institution's relationship with the state. The profit-incentive driving the directors, the objections of actors and managers, the sensibilities of conservative social pressure groups, and the ideological sensitivities of the state constituted internal and external forces of censorship that were not unique to the Abbey Theatre nor particular to Ireland.
BEN LEVITAS
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253432
- eISBN:
- 9780191719196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253432.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the fracture of the theatre movement and cultural nationalist alliances in the post-Boer period. Yeats, with financial backing from Annie Horniman, was able to set up the INTS ...
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This chapter examines the fracture of the theatre movement and cultural nationalist alliances in the post-Boer period. Yeats, with financial backing from Annie Horniman, was able to set up the INTS in the Abbey Theatre and establish the organisation as a professional company. Cultural nationalists, particularly Griffith and Moran, attacked the theatre for rejecting propagandist imperatives; however, their attack on Synge reveals a conservative nationalist agenda also evident in their anti-Semitic support for the Limerick Pogrom of 1903. Beyond the apparent oppositions, however, a ‘union of Sceptics’, often in left-literati combinations, operated to suggest alternatives. Journals such as Dana, the Nationist, and the National Democrat; theatre groups such as the Theatre of Ireland and the Ulster Literary Theatre; and the range of material available at the Abbey from Colum, Boyle and Lady Gregory demonstrate a broad spectrum of opinion.Less
This chapter examines the fracture of the theatre movement and cultural nationalist alliances in the post-Boer period. Yeats, with financial backing from Annie Horniman, was able to set up the INTS in the Abbey Theatre and establish the organisation as a professional company. Cultural nationalists, particularly Griffith and Moran, attacked the theatre for rejecting propagandist imperatives; however, their attack on Synge reveals a conservative nationalist agenda also evident in their anti-Semitic support for the Limerick Pogrom of 1903. Beyond the apparent oppositions, however, a ‘union of Sceptics’, often in left-literati combinations, operated to suggest alternatives. Journals such as Dana, the Nationist, and the National Democrat; theatre groups such as the Theatre of Ireland and the Ulster Literary Theatre; and the range of material available at the Abbey from Colum, Boyle and Lady Gregory demonstrate a broad spectrum of opinion.
Robert Welch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121879
- eISBN:
- 9780191671364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121879.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Theatre is a business. Managing it requires planning in every step, and budget. All actions are monitored and projects that needed money are reviewed by a board of directors and by people who supply ...
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Theatre is a business. Managing it requires planning in every step, and budget. All actions are monitored and projects that needed money are reviewed by a board of directors and by people who supply funds before getting approval. A theatre, like a business, is an incorporation of interests needing a balance between visionary expansiveness and steely management. The directors of the Abbey Theatre have shown such a depth of commitment that made the company strong — from Yeats and Lady Gregory to Blythe; Macken to Mason. In this chapter, the objectives of the men and women who led the Abbey Theatre are discussed. Each director has proved to be adaptive to the times, and had objectives corresponding to what Ireland as a nation was going through at that particular time: for instance, Yeats and Lady Gregory had objectives that were national and nationalistic, given the political turmoil apparent in their era. Robinson, meanwhile, was influenced by his experiences in the Dublin Drama League, making his visions more European or Internationalist than Yeats' or Lady Gregory's, although he too had elements from the past that moved the theatre to create a cultural movement. Other directors were also sympathetic to what was happening around the theatre.Less
Theatre is a business. Managing it requires planning in every step, and budget. All actions are monitored and projects that needed money are reviewed by a board of directors and by people who supply funds before getting approval. A theatre, like a business, is an incorporation of interests needing a balance between visionary expansiveness and steely management. The directors of the Abbey Theatre have shown such a depth of commitment that made the company strong — from Yeats and Lady Gregory to Blythe; Macken to Mason. In this chapter, the objectives of the men and women who led the Abbey Theatre are discussed. Each director has proved to be adaptive to the times, and had objectives corresponding to what Ireland as a nation was going through at that particular time: for instance, Yeats and Lady Gregory had objectives that were national and nationalistic, given the political turmoil apparent in their era. Robinson, meanwhile, was influenced by his experiences in the Dublin Drama League, making his visions more European or Internationalist than Yeats' or Lady Gregory's, although he too had elements from the past that moved the theatre to create a cultural movement. Other directors were also sympathetic to what was happening around the theatre.
Robert Welch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121879
- eISBN:
- 9780191671364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121879.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
IThe Abbey Theatre faced many difficulties between 1966 and the 1980s. The new Abbey Theatre opened on 18 July 1966, but not without difficulty. Its patent had run out about the time of the 1951 ...
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IThe Abbey Theatre faced many difficulties between 1966 and the 1980s. The new Abbey Theatre opened on 18 July 1966, but not without difficulty. Its patent had run out about the time of the 1951 fire, and its renewal had been overlooked. The company could only work under a temporary license for selling drinks at the theatre, after the authorities relented. On opening night, the theatre experienced onstage technical problems which were only resolved half an hour before the curtain went up. The opening went with a great celebration: trumpets heralded the inauguration, and important people like President Eamon de Valera taking part in the event. This chapter finally recounts the new features of the Abbey Theatre, and the events that took place after its inauguration.Less
IThe Abbey Theatre faced many difficulties between 1966 and the 1980s. The new Abbey Theatre opened on 18 July 1966, but not without difficulty. Its patent had run out about the time of the 1951 fire, and its renewal had been overlooked. The company could only work under a temporary license for selling drinks at the theatre, after the authorities relented. On opening night, the theatre experienced onstage technical problems which were only resolved half an hour before the curtain went up. The opening went with a great celebration: trumpets heralded the inauguration, and important people like President Eamon de Valera taking part in the event. This chapter finally recounts the new features of the Abbey Theatre, and the events that took place after its inauguration.
Robert Welch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121879
- eISBN:
- 9780191671364
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121879.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
A century ago this year, productions of W. B. Yeats' The Countess Cathleen and Edward Martyn's The Heather Field inaugurated the Irish Literary Theatre, which was to take its name from its home in ...
More
A century ago this year, productions of W. B. Yeats' The Countess Cathleen and Edward Martyn's The Heather Field inaugurated the Irish Literary Theatre, which was to take its name from its home in Abbey Street, Dublin. Despite riot, fire, and critical controversy, the Abbey Theatre has housed Ireland's National Theatre ever since. This is the first history of the Abbey to discuss the plays and the personalities in their underlying historical and political context, to give due weight to the theatre's work in Irish, and to take stock of its artistic and financial development up to the present. The research for the book draws extensively on archive sources, especially the manuscript holdings on the Abbey at the National Library of Ireland. Many outstanding plays are examined, with detailed analysis of their form and their affective and emotional content; and persistent themes in the Abbey's output are identified — visions of an ideal community; the revival of Irish; the hunger for land and money; the restrictions of a society undergoing profound change. But these are integrated with accounts of the Abbey's people, from Yeats, Martyn, and Lady Gregory, whose brainchild it was, to the actors, playwrights, directors, and managers who have followed — among them the Fays, Synge, O'Casey, Murray, Robinson, Shiels, Johnston, Murphy, Molloy, Friel, McGuiness, Deevy, Carr, and many others. The role of directors and policy-makers, and the struggle for financial security, subsidy, and new-style ‘partnerships’, is discussed as a crucial part of the theatre's continuing evolution.Less
A century ago this year, productions of W. B. Yeats' The Countess Cathleen and Edward Martyn's The Heather Field inaugurated the Irish Literary Theatre, which was to take its name from its home in Abbey Street, Dublin. Despite riot, fire, and critical controversy, the Abbey Theatre has housed Ireland's National Theatre ever since. This is the first history of the Abbey to discuss the plays and the personalities in their underlying historical and political context, to give due weight to the theatre's work in Irish, and to take stock of its artistic and financial development up to the present. The research for the book draws extensively on archive sources, especially the manuscript holdings on the Abbey at the National Library of Ireland. Many outstanding plays are examined, with detailed analysis of their form and their affective and emotional content; and persistent themes in the Abbey's output are identified — visions of an ideal community; the revival of Irish; the hunger for land and money; the restrictions of a society undergoing profound change. But these are integrated with accounts of the Abbey's people, from Yeats, Martyn, and Lady Gregory, whose brainchild it was, to the actors, playwrights, directors, and managers who have followed — among them the Fays, Synge, O'Casey, Murray, Robinson, Shiels, Johnston, Murphy, Molloy, Friel, McGuiness, Deevy, Carr, and many others. The role of directors and policy-makers, and the struggle for financial security, subsidy, and new-style ‘partnerships’, is discussed as a crucial part of the theatre's continuing evolution.
Robert Welch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121879
- eISBN:
- 9780191671364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121879.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter gives a summary of the book and looks at the foundation of the Abbey Theatre, the Irish National Theatre, and how it all started from that afternoon at the Duras House. The first play of ...
More
This chapter gives a summary of the book and looks at the foundation of the Abbey Theatre, the Irish National Theatre, and how it all started from that afternoon at the Duras House. The first play of the Irish Literary Theatre carried a theme concerning politics: who should lead Ireland and how should it be lead. While Yeats did not suggest exact answers, he succeeded in showing how theatre could become a public laboratory for issues of governance, identity, and responsibility. Yeats, together with Synge and Lady Gregory, wanted to create a national theatre. The Abbey Theatre, under the control of her artistic directors, who drew out inspiration from the times, continued to be an arena that reflected the joys and sorrows of Ireland as a people.Less
This chapter gives a summary of the book and looks at the foundation of the Abbey Theatre, the Irish National Theatre, and how it all started from that afternoon at the Duras House. The first play of the Irish Literary Theatre carried a theme concerning politics: who should lead Ireland and how should it be lead. While Yeats did not suggest exact answers, he succeeded in showing how theatre could become a public laboratory for issues of governance, identity, and responsibility. Yeats, together with Synge and Lady Gregory, wanted to create a national theatre. The Abbey Theatre, under the control of her artistic directors, who drew out inspiration from the times, continued to be an arena that reflected the joys and sorrows of Ireland as a people.
Brian Cliff and Nicholas Grene (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609888
- eISBN:
- 9780191731778
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609888.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
J. M. Synge’s dramatic career, from his first plays in 1902 to his premature death in 1909, almost exactly coincided with the years of Edward VII’s reign. Those years have long been studied in a ...
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J. M. Synge’s dramatic career, from his first plays in 1902 to his premature death in 1909, almost exactly coincided with the years of Edward VII’s reign. Those years have long been studied in a British context, but this is the first book to explore the cultural life of Edwardian Ireland as a distinctive period. By emphasizing several less familiar Irish contexts for Synge’s work—including a new sociological awareness, the rise of a local celebrity culture, an international theatre context, the arts and crafts movement, Irish classical music, and comedic writing by Somerville and Ross—this collection shows how the Revival’s preoccupation with folk culture intersected with the new networks of mass communication in the late imperial world. Although Synge is best known as a dramatist, this book concentrates on his prose and the ethnography of his photographs, the work in which his engagement with Edwardian Ireland can be most significantly seen. Often misunderstood as apolitical, Synge’s writings and photography display a romantic resistance to modernity alongside their more accurate observations of contemporary conditions. It is through this ambivalent modernity that his work continued to haunt not just advocates like W.B. Yeats but even Synge’s critics, including Padraig Pearse and James Joyce, all of whom were forced to come to imaginative terms with Synge through their own work. This book aims to change readers’ sense of Synge’s significance, and by doing so to illuminate in a quite new way the era of Edwardian Ireland during this period of rapid modernization.Less
J. M. Synge’s dramatic career, from his first plays in 1902 to his premature death in 1909, almost exactly coincided with the years of Edward VII’s reign. Those years have long been studied in a British context, but this is the first book to explore the cultural life of Edwardian Ireland as a distinctive period. By emphasizing several less familiar Irish contexts for Synge’s work—including a new sociological awareness, the rise of a local celebrity culture, an international theatre context, the arts and crafts movement, Irish classical music, and comedic writing by Somerville and Ross—this collection shows how the Revival’s preoccupation with folk culture intersected with the new networks of mass communication in the late imperial world. Although Synge is best known as a dramatist, this book concentrates on his prose and the ethnography of his photographs, the work in which his engagement with Edwardian Ireland can be most significantly seen. Often misunderstood as apolitical, Synge’s writings and photography display a romantic resistance to modernity alongside their more accurate observations of contemporary conditions. It is through this ambivalent modernity that his work continued to haunt not just advocates like W.B. Yeats but even Synge’s critics, including Padraig Pearse and James Joyce, all of whom were forced to come to imaginative terms with Synge through their own work. This book aims to change readers’ sense of Synge’s significance, and by doing so to illuminate in a quite new way the era of Edwardian Ireland during this period of rapid modernization.
Adrian Frazier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609888
- eISBN:
- 9780191731778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609888.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
While the plays of J. M. Synge are normally seen in the context of the ‘Irish dramatic revival,’ or the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, this chapter relates them to a wider spectrum of theatrical ...
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While the plays of J. M. Synge are normally seen in the context of the ‘Irish dramatic revival,’ or the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, this chapter relates them to a wider spectrum of theatrical entertainments in Paris and particularly London. It follows a recent trend in theatre history to consider plays in their original performance contexts, rather than as dramas on the page, or primarily in relation to other writings by the same author. ‘Thick descriptions’ are provided of the activities of the writers and founders of the Irish dramatic revival in London in April 1897 and in February 1900, and their efforts to create an alternative ‘business model’ for a literary theatre to the large London entertainment factories. Attention is also given to how Synge’s plays were subsequently received as items in a menu of entertainments by London audiences and critics.Less
While the plays of J. M. Synge are normally seen in the context of the ‘Irish dramatic revival,’ or the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, this chapter relates them to a wider spectrum of theatrical entertainments in Paris and particularly London. It follows a recent trend in theatre history to consider plays in their original performance contexts, rather than as dramas on the page, or primarily in relation to other writings by the same author. ‘Thick descriptions’ are provided of the activities of the writers and founders of the Irish dramatic revival in London in April 1897 and in February 1900, and their efforts to create an alternative ‘business model’ for a literary theatre to the large London entertainment factories. Attention is also given to how Synge’s plays were subsequently received as items in a menu of entertainments by London audiences and critics.
F. S. L. LYONS
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583744
- eISBN:
- 9780191702365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583744.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the political history of Ireland during the period from 1903 to 1907. It suggests that the full significance and complexity of the watershed in Irish history can be best ...
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This chapter examines the political history of Ireland during the period from 1903 to 1907. It suggests that the full significance and complexity of the watershed in Irish history can be best understood by analysis of this period. Some of the major political developments during this time include the introduction and withdrawal of the Irish council bill, the Abbey Theatre riots, the resignation from the Irish parliamentary party of C.J. Dolan, and his decision to contest his old seat as a Sinn Féin candidate.Less
This chapter examines the political history of Ireland during the period from 1903 to 1907. It suggests that the full significance and complexity of the watershed in Irish history can be best understood by analysis of this period. Some of the major political developments during this time include the introduction and withdrawal of the Irish council bill, the Abbey Theatre riots, the resignation from the Irish parliamentary party of C.J. Dolan, and his decision to contest his old seat as a Sinn Féin candidate.
Connal Parr
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198791591
- eISBN:
- 9780191833953
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198791591.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Drama
St John Ervine and Thomas Carnduff were born in working-class Protestant parts of Belfast in the 1880s, though Ervine would escape to an eventually prosperous existence in England. Orangeism, the ...
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St John Ervine and Thomas Carnduff were born in working-class Protestant parts of Belfast in the 1880s, though Ervine would escape to an eventually prosperous existence in England. Orangeism, the politics of early twentieth-century Ireland, the militancy of the age—and the involvement of these writers in it—along with Ervine’s journey from ardent Fabian to reactionary Unionist, via his pivotal experiences managing the Abbey Theatre and losing a leg in the First World War, are all discussed. Carnduff’s own tumultuous life is reflected through his complicated Orange affiliation, gut class-consciousness, poetry, unpublished work, contempt for the local (and gentrified) Ulster artistic scene, and veneration of socially conscious United Irishman James Hope. It concludes with an assessment of their respective legacies and continuing import.Less
St John Ervine and Thomas Carnduff were born in working-class Protestant parts of Belfast in the 1880s, though Ervine would escape to an eventually prosperous existence in England. Orangeism, the politics of early twentieth-century Ireland, the militancy of the age—and the involvement of these writers in it—along with Ervine’s journey from ardent Fabian to reactionary Unionist, via his pivotal experiences managing the Abbey Theatre and losing a leg in the First World War, are all discussed. Carnduff’s own tumultuous life is reflected through his complicated Orange affiliation, gut class-consciousness, poetry, unpublished work, contempt for the local (and gentrified) Ulster artistic scene, and veneration of socially conscious United Irishman James Hope. It concludes with an assessment of their respective legacies and continuing import.
Anna Pilz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719097584
- eISBN:
- 9781526115225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719097584.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on Lady Gregory’s historical drama The White Cockade within the context of the fin-de-siècle revival of Jacobitism. With its historical focus on the Battle of the Boyne and its ...
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This chapter focuses on Lady Gregory’s historical drama The White Cockade within the context of the fin-de-siècle revival of Jacobitism. With its historical focus on the Battle of the Boyne and its social, political and economic implications for both Catholic and Protestant Irish society, the play’s topic was a daring one for the Abbey’s theatre audience. In The White Cockade, Gregory brought to light the power of self-sacrificial rhetoric and, at the same time, challenged the popular concept of nationalist martyrology by presenting her audience with what is effectively a double ending that allowed for a flexibility in responses. Despite the potential divisiveness of the historical subject matter, the play’s engagement with fin-de-siècle Irish Jacobite thought chimed well with its audiences. The contemporary acceptance of Gregory’s criticism, in particular, pays tribute to her dramatic craft and complicates our understanding of the politics of representation in early twentieth-century Ireland.Less
This chapter focuses on Lady Gregory’s historical drama The White Cockade within the context of the fin-de-siècle revival of Jacobitism. With its historical focus on the Battle of the Boyne and its social, political and economic implications for both Catholic and Protestant Irish society, the play’s topic was a daring one for the Abbey’s theatre audience. In The White Cockade, Gregory brought to light the power of self-sacrificial rhetoric and, at the same time, challenged the popular concept of nationalist martyrology by presenting her audience with what is effectively a double ending that allowed for a flexibility in responses. Despite the potential divisiveness of the historical subject matter, the play’s engagement with fin-de-siècle Irish Jacobite thought chimed well with its audiences. The contemporary acceptance of Gregory’s criticism, in particular, pays tribute to her dramatic craft and complicates our understanding of the politics of representation in early twentieth-century Ireland.
