Synge and the Theatre

Abstract

‘Where, but for that conversation at Florimond de Basterot’s,’ Yeats wondered, ‘had been the genius of Synge?’¹ The conversation referred to took place in July 1897 when he, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn discussed the feasibility of founding an Irish theatre. The upshot was that a letter was prepared soliciting support and funds, and setting out the ideals of the trio:

We propose to have performed in Dublin, in the spring of every year certain Celtic and Irish plays, which whatever be their degree of excellence will be written with a high ambition, and so build up a Celtic and Irish school of dramatic literature. We hope to find in Ireland an uncorrupted and imaginative audience trained to listen by its passion for oratory, and believe that our desire to bring upon the stage the deeper thoughts and emotions of Ireland will ensure for us a tolerant welcome, and that freedom to experiment which is not found in theatres of England, and without which no new movement in art or literature can succeed. We will show that Ireland is not the home of buffoonery and of easy sentiment, as it has been represented, but the home of an ancient idealism.