The Abbey Theatre, The First 100 Years

The Irish Arts Center continues its documentary film series with a film on Ireland’s world renowned national theatre – The Abbey Theatre, The First 100 Years. The film will be screened in the IAC’s intimate Donaghy Theatre.

The Abbey Theatre, The First 100 Years tells the fascinating story of Ireland’s world renowned National Theater from the beginnings when William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory came together to found the Abbey in 1904. It is the story of genius demanding genius, personal feuds and political interference. On another level it is the story of the ideas, the writing, the acting, the riots in Ireland and America, the fire which destroyed the theatre in 1951, the new theatre in 1966 and the emergence of a new school of writers which will lead the Abbey through the next 100 years.

The film features rare archival footage of Sean O’Casey, Brendan Behan, Donal McCann and Cyril Cusack and contemporary interviews with Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) and Colm Meaney (Star Trek, The Commitments) among many others. It is written, directed and produced by John Lynch, who has a long association with the Abbey as actor, playwright and director and narrated by Kathleen Barrington, an Abbey actress for forty years, and it has an original musical score composed by Adam Orpen-Lynch.