Abstract
I have often thought that it would be interesting to jot down some memories of the beginnings of the Irish theatrical movement, which resulted in the establishment of the Abbey Theatre, as I was casually connected with it from the start.
Sunday Independent (Dublin), 6 Jan 1929, p. 7.
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Notes
See Henry F. Norman, ‘Unheard Music: In Memory of Thomas Goodwin Keller’, Dublin Magazine , 17 (Oct–Dec 1942) 26–31.
See Ann Saddlemyer, ‘James Joyce and the Irish Dramatic Movement’, in James Joyce: An International Perspective Centenary Essays , ed. S. H. Bushrui and Bernard Benstock (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe; Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes & Noble, 1982).
The Laying of the Foundations, which was first presented by the Irish National Dramatic Company for the Cumann na nGaedheal in the Antient Concert Rooms on 29 Oct 1902. Only Act Two of this two-act play has survived, and is available in Lost Plays of the Irish Renaissance, ed. Robert Hogan and James Kilroy (Newark, Delaware: Proscenium Press, 1970).
Cf. ‘It was in Camden Street during a rehearsal of her play Twenty-Five that she instituted what was later to become one of the most popular features of Abbey Theatre first nights — the “Gort barmbrack suppers”. The Gort barmbrack was a huge cartwheel of a fruit-cake, filled with the richest ingredients, made specifically by her own bakers at Gort for the casts of any of her new plays’ (Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh, The Splendid Years (Dublin: James Duffy, 1955), pp. 31–2).
Cf. ‘A few days later Frank Fay wrote again to say that The Hour-Glass had been put aside because it was not thought possible to give it the preparation necessary for such an important piece. At the same time, in spite of Rule Six and the Reading Committee the brothers jointly turned down Lady Gregory’s Twenty-Five. Obviously they either relented or were over-ruled for the play was put on a few months later with W. G. Fay in the leading part’ (Gerard Fay, The Abbey Theatre, Cradle of Genius (Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds, 1958) p. 48).
In 1903, at a meeting of the Irish National Theatre Society, P.J. Kelly and Dudley Digges notified the group that they had been engaged to act in a revival of The Heather Field.
Digges and Quinn had already resigned in protest over the Dec 1903 performance of The Shadow of the Glen , and Kelly was expelled from the company in April.
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© 1988 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Keller, T.G. (1988). The Irish Theatre Movement: Some Early Memories. In: Mikhail, E.H. (eds) The Abbey Theatre. Interviews and Recollections. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08508-8_6
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