Keynote Speakers

Richard Cave

Professor of Drama & Theatre Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London

Introduction: Brian Singleton

The Abbey Tours in England

After investigating possible meanings and social implications of the words ‘diaspora’ and ‘touring’, this lecture will look at the changing agendas which might be read into the various tours to England, respecting the contemporaneous political relations between the two countries. The very nature of the tours altered appreciably between the early years of the twentieth century and more recent decades, and the reasons for this pattern of change will also be explored. The lecture will end with the question of whether ‘tour’ is any longer an appropriate term to use. In the course of the lecture, the speaker will analyse the reactions by English reviewers to the spectrum of Irish performance offered: to the plays, production styles, and performers.

John P. Harrington

Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
President of the American Conference for Irish Studies

Introduction: Christopher Morash

The Abbey in America: The Real Thing

The Abbey Theatre has been a touring company from its inception, and it has been touring in America since 1911. This quality distinguishes it from most other national theatres, gives it a unique record for performance abroad, and creates tensions in a theatrical organization between civic and artistic missions, priorities, and responsibilities. When the Abbey Theatre is in America, it performs before a professional theatrical audience, an Irish-American audience, and a general audience, all of whom, for nearly a century, have reached quite different conclusions about the company's degrees of success and failure. That extended critique of the Abbey in America demonstrates how Ireland's national theatre has successfully negotiated complex expectations abroad for an artistic drama, a national drama, and a nationalist drama.

This talk will use contemporary attempts to conceptualize national theatre as a way to define expectations for the Abbey in America. The Abbey tours to be examined as representative examples will be the ones from 1911 (repertory), 1930s (repertory), 1980s (The Great Hunger), and 1990s (Freedom of the City). The influence of the company will be described, along with frequent imitators of it and rising emphases on the authenticity of ‘The Official National Theatre of Ireland.’ Americans visiting the Abbey in Dublin help clarify expectations specific to touring, and what the Abbey played against, especially on Broadway, will help define the uniqueness of the company for Americans.