“A Celtic Theatre”

Proposal. Signed by Standish O’Grady, W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore, and Edward Martyn

“A Celtic Theatre”

1897

At Coole in summer 1897, Yeats and Gregory, along with Edward Martyn—a neighboring Catholic nationalist and writer—joined in a conversation in which the two men expressed their regret that there was no established Irish theater, where their plays could be produced. As they all talked, however, “things seemed to grow possible.” Gregory typed an appeal letter, asking guarantors to support a “Celtic Theatre” that would aim to “bring upon the stage the deeper thoughts and emotions of Ireland” and refute the “buffoonery” frequent in existing representations of Irishness. Renamed “The Irish Literary Theatre,” the project ran from 1899 to 1901, laying the foundations for the Abbey Theatre.

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations