Search Results for 'Abbey Theatre'

Described as “one of the most imaginative literary novelists writing in the English language today,” John Banville will open The Lady Gregory - Yeats Autumn Gathering in September.

The highly successful Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering celebrates its 20th birthday in Coole Park, Gort, from Friday to Sunday, September 26 to 28.

SOCIAL MEDIA, be it Twitter or Facebook, are, like the theatre stage, a performance space where people ‘perform’ versions of themselves to the outside world.

It is almost two decades since the first Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering at Coole and the event goes from strength to strength with an impressive line-up of speakers and events announced at the launch at Coole last weekend.

The highly successful Lady Gregory Autumn Gatherings continue in Coole Park, Gort, Co Galway, running from Friday to Sunday, 23 to 25 September, and will this year recognise the remarkable influence of Lady Augusta Gregory on the development of Irish theatre and literature.

The 2011 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival was officially launched at the Abbey Theatre on Wednesday night at a glittering reception attended by Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan. Guests also included Judge Bryan McMahon, chairman of the Board of the Abbey Theatre and RTÉ director general Noel Curran, as well as representatives from the participating groups, the festival’s organising committee, and other drama personalities. The event renews links with the National Theatre which go back to the early days of the festival when many Abbey notables adjudicated at or officially opened the festival.

I find it hard to imagine that not everyone liked Lady Augusta Gregory of Coole Park. What few readers there are of the Diary, I am told, sigh with exasperation when they see her name appear. They know that I will eulogise endlessly about how her home at Coole became a ‘workshop’ for writers, poets and artists during those exciting days at the beginning of the last century, leading to such remarkable talents as WB Yeats, John M Synge, Sean O’Casey and others to stand as giants on the European literary stage. She was the co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, its director and organiser during its shaky early days. She was a substantial playwright, journal keeper, folklorist, scholar, etc, etc, and, in my opinion, this amazing Galway woman never got the recognition she deserved.

The highly successful Lady Gregory Autumn Gatherings will continue in Coole Park, Gort, from Friday September 24 to Sunday September 26. Recognising the remarkable influence of Lady Augusta Gregory on the development of Irish theatre and literature, this 16th gathering highlights her unique inspiration for the early foundations of the Abbey Theatre.

The Playboy of the Western World, by John Millington Synge, is arguably the Irish playwright’s greatest masterpiece. In order to mark the centenary of JM Synge’s death – he died, aged 37, on March 24 1909 – the Erris Players, under the direction of Bridie Quinn, will be staging a powerful performance of this noted drama in Belmullet and in Bangor Erris. Interestingly, this is not the group’s first performance of the play – they first staged it 17 years ago and that very successful production is still recalled by local actors and audiences alike.