W. B. Yeats and the Abbey Theatre

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) has been called the greatest poet of his time, but, in addition to being a writer of brilliant verse, he was also a dramatist who helped to establish Ireland's first national theater---the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Today the Abbey is respected throughout the world, but it was very controversial in its early days, and some of its initial productions prompted riots in the streets.

Although there had been various theaters in Dublin since 1637, they were created not by the Irish but by the English elite. The many Irish-born or Irish-raised playwrights of the 17th and 18th centuries rarely wrote about Irish topics or issues and primarily used English actors for their plays. By the late 1800s there was still nothing that could be called an active Irish dramatic tradition. In London in 1898, however, an Anglo-Irishwoman, Lady Augusta Gregory, recorded in her diary that she had had tea with the ambitious young writer William Butler Yeats: "He is very full of playwriting and very keen about taking or building a little theatre somewhere."

Yeats was born in Dublin but spent much of his childhood in Ireland's northwest countryside. Amid Sligo's storied hills and lakes, the young man developed a love for mythology and folklore, creative touchstones that found their way into much of his later work. While studying art in Dublin and London in the 1880s, Yeats often returned to the myths and legends of his youth and soon decided to devote himself entirely to writing.

In his early verse and plays, Yeats endeavored to awaken an interest in Ireland's historical and legendary past, and he often employed pre-Christian, Celtic symbols. He also sought out likeminded individuals, such as Lady Gregory and the aspiring playwright Edward Martyn. Together they formed the Irish Literary Theatre (ILT) in 1899. Their goal was to continue the bardic traditions of ancient Ireland and enhance the cultural identity of the nation through dramatic art. 

Working without an established venue, the ILT presented its first few plays in various London halls. It made its Dublin debut with Yeats's The Countess Cathleen in the city's Antient Concert Rooms in May of 1899. Although involved with the cause of Ireland's independence from England, Yeats had intended his play to transcend mere politics and evoke instead the heroic spirit of Ireland's past. Hard-line Irish Catholics and nationalists, however, objected to its raw depiction of Irish peasantry. A pamphlet distributed prior to the performance attacked The Countess Cathleen for being heretical and blasphemous, and Yeats found himself on stage during the production trying to howl down a mob. 

Despite these inauspicious beginnings, the poet's ambition to create a national theater was realized in December 1904. Annie Horniman, a philanthropic Englishwoman and an admirer of Yeats, acquired an abandoned theater on Abbey Street in Dublin and presented it to the Irish National Theatre Society (formed in 1903 by the merger of the ILT with W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Society).

Subsequent Abbey productions---most famously John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World (1907) and Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (1926)---incited riots that landed Yeats and Gregory in political hot water again. Yeats's own politically charged play Cathleen Ni Houlihan helped stoke the fires of Irish nationalism that would eventually flare up into the Easter Rising of 1916. 

Today, Yeats and Gregory's dream of a native theater producing Irish drama is alive and well. The Abbey not only stages regular productions for local audiences but also has become world-famous for producing talented playwrights and actors such as Brian Friel, Liam Neeson, Siobhan McKenna, and Gabriel Byrne.