Dublin, Ireland’s Abbey Theatre Celebrates 100 Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Read this entire feature FREE with photos at: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/shows/theater/abbey/abbeytheatre.htmlEveryone in Israel is an archaeologist, while everyone in Ireland is a poet (or writer, playwright, or singer, or at very least, a critic).
Mirth and merriment is woven deeply into fabric of Irish consciousness. You can sit in a pub and in middle of a conversation they will break out in passionate song or quote prose and poetry from William Butler Yeats or other national literature heroes. After all, this is Isle that invented limerick.
The National Theatre of Ireland is celebrating its centennial in 2004 with nationwide events called Abbeyonehundred that not only sees wonderful staged plays at theatre that W.B. Yeats built, but major museum shows about drama, acting, and even stage sets.
For ten decades Abbey Theatre in Dublin, has staged provocative dramas and comedies and musicals by playwrights who have observed and absorbed tumultuous changes that have taken place in Irish society. Since 1904 these distilled and poignant revelations have been revealed on two national stages, Abbey and more recent Peacock.
The new Abbey Theatre in Dublin rests on namesake of WB Yates' original theatre.
26 Lower Abbey Street 00 353 1 887 2200 www.abbeytheatre.ei
The Abbey was founded at a time of social, political and intellectual ferment in Ireland and its story is well woven into fabric of nation. It has served with distinction in asserting Irish identify under yoke of English rule. The names of its champions are legendary and it is fascinating to see among them names of so many women, among them Maud Gonne, Augusta Gregory, and English philanthropist Annie Horniman, who bankroled Yeats' thespian endeavor. William Butler Yeats' own vision of Abbey at its inception was a vision not only of future for drama but future of Ireland. The decades have seen considerable applause and a predictable quota of criticism and controversy prevaricated by Abbey.