Dublin audiences rioted at the Abbey in 1907, three years after it opened, over J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. That set the tone. The Abbey Theatre (Amharclann na Mainistreach), Ireland’s national theatre on Lower Abbey Street, has spent more than a century staging work designed to argue with its public – and in 1925 it became the first state-subsidised theatre in the English-speaking world, which made the arguing official policy.
Where it came from
The Abbey grew out of the Irish Literary Revival, from three strands: the Irish Literary Theatre, founded in 1899 by W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn; the Fay brothers’ touring company, which played to working-class audiences; and the money of Annie Horniman, the English patron who bankrolled the building. It opened on 27 December 1904 and over the following decades launched Seán O’Casey, Brendan Behan and Brian Friel.
The fire
In 1951, during a run of O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars, fire took the stage, auditorium and roof, along with much of the early archive, costumes and props. The basement Peacock studio survived untouched. So did the Abbey’s gong, pulled from the rubble by a Dublin firefighter and struck again to mark the reopening in 1966 – fifteen years later. The rebuilt theatre, by architect Michael Scott, is a modernist auditorium of 492 seats with strong acoustics and a portrait gallery of the founders.
Seeing a show
A performance is the point of the place – take the tour only if the dates won’t cooperate. The programme mixes revivals of the classics with new Irish writing, and standard seats start at €15 for most main-stage shows. Students, seniors, theatre makers and the unwaged get concession prices, and the ‘Theatre For All’ scheme puts €5 tickets into DEIS schools and community groups. A €1.50 booking fee applies online and by phone. If a performance is cancelled or postponed, you can move your tickets, keep the value as a five-year voucher or take a full refund.
Beneath the main house, the Peacock is a black-box studio of just over 100 seats for experimental work, readings and emerging writers. Its schedule runs separately – check the website.
The tour
The National Theatre Tour runs about 90 minutes and costs €18, taking you through the 1960s auditorium, the portrait gallery, the dressing-room corridors and the hair and make-up area, with the backstage stories thrown in. Tours are scheduled around performance dates rather than to a fixed weekly timetable, so book ahead. One caveat: it covers multiple levels, so contact the box office in advance if stairs are a problem. If you just want a coffee, Pegeen’s café in the foyer is open daily 9am–4pm.
Getting there
The Luas Red Line stops at Abbey Street, two minutes away; the Green Line stops at Marlborough Street, beside the theatre; Connolly Station (DART and commuter rail) is five minutes on foot. Don’t drive if you can help it. If you must, the nearest car parks are Q-Park The Spire on Cathal Brugha Street (open 24/7, and the code Abbey20 gets 20% off online) and Q-Park Irish Life on Gardiner Street. Box office: Mon–Fri 12pm–6pm, longer on performance days; +353 1 87 87 222; boxoffice@abbeytheatre.ie.