Abbey Theatre

Ireland's national theatre since 1904, founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory, home of the Irish Literary Revival.

The Abbey Theatre is Ireland's national theatre, founded in Dublin in 1904 by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory to give Irish writers a platform during a time of fierce cultural debate. Premieres of plays by J.M. Synge and Seán O'Casey caused public uproar — the audience once rioted over The Playboy of the Western World. After a fire in 1951 destroyed the original building, it moved to the Queen's Theatre until the current building opened in 1966. The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world and remains central to Irish cultural life.