Table of Contents

Prologue 1.
1: 1899-1902, 'Four Green Fields'
2: 1902-1910, 'Screeching in a Straightened Waistcoat'
3: 1911-1925, 'O Absalom, my son'
4: 1926-1951, 'The birth of a nation is no immaculate conception'
5: 1951-1966, 'I remember everything'
6: 1966-1985, 'History is personal'
7: 1985-1999, 'The dead are not the past, the dead are the future'
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

`Review from previous edition Welch supplies fresh material all along the way.'
Christopher Murray, Irish University Review.
`Welch's ... book mixes an account of the Abbey's artistic directors with synopses of the major plays and gives a good idea of the controversies and debates they inspired...there is something exciting about Welch's ambition to show how the Abbey has, to quote Hamlet - as he does in his subtitle - shown the 'very age and body of the time his form and pressure'...essential as reference...readable, reliable and fascinating ... Readers and researchers will be
indebted to the thoroughness, commitment and attention that characterise [these studies] which [are] a powerful reminder of the artre's impact on the cultures of both nations and its role in defining
national identity.'
Aleks Sierz, The Times H E Supplement, 18th Aug. 00.
`It is good to see Criostoir O Floinn and Sean O Tuama get proper attention...It is good ... to have a record of the days of Yeats, Synge and O'Casey whent he new was revolutionary, and of the reflections on contemporary change that inform the best work of Tom Murphy and Brian Friel...Vividly, Welch recounts the riots over mock morality and fake patriotism concerning Synge and O'Casey. His research on infighting among the mechanics and the players is
diverting.'
Hayden Murphy, The Herald, 26.01.00
`one of this book's most important features is its focused comments on the myriad plays produced within the evolving organizational and stylistic structure that was (and is)the Abbey...This work broadens and significantly extends earlier studies ... so much to admire and appreciate in this gold mine of anecdote and interpretation.'
W.M Tate, Choice, Sept. 00.
`this book could hardly be more timely ... This is a very thorough survey of the works which make up the Abbey Theatre's vast and extraordinary contribution to Western drama.'
Christopher Fitzsimon, The Irish Independent, 15/1/00
`Robert Welch's book should act as a clarion call to all theatre historians interested in the astonishing richness of Irish drama in the last century.'
Ben Barnes, Sunday Tribune 9/1/00
`scholarly and entertaining history of the abbey ... This, the fourth history of the National Theatre, is a valuable study in many ways.'
Ronan Farren, The Sunday Independent 12/12/99
`Welch has one major advantage over the previous historians of the Abbey. As a fluent Irish speaker and writer who has published in both languages, he is in a position to assess the Irish-language repertory of the Abbey as well as the English.'
Nicholas Grene, Irish Studies Review