A lasting Irish drama

I arrived at Dublin's hallowed Abbey Theatre one-half hour before curtain time for Marina Carr's dark Irish drama, "Ariel."

It was a thrill to be in the Abbey, the National Theatre of Ireland, which has a long literary and theatrical tradition.

Entering the almost-empty 628-seat auditorium, with its crimson velvet curtain hanging in front of the broad stage, I thought of the past and imagined what it must have been like to attend performances of the works of the classic master playwrights at the beginning of their careers.

This repertory playhouse, named after the street it fronts, is often described as "the mother of the little theaters," although it certainly wouldn't be considered little by most standards. It had humble beginnings, however. The original theater was constructed from an old variety hall and a one-time city morgue that had previously been used as a savings bank.

The first Abbey Theatre was built in 1904, thanks to the financial assistance of art patron A.E.F. Horniman, an Englishwoman . The company was a group of Irish dramatists and actors who billed themselves as the Irish Literary Theatre and later as the Irish National Theatre Society.

In the society's infancy, many of its independent Irish members were associated with the Gaelic League, which promoted the revival of the Irish language and literature.

Lady Augusta Gregory and William Butler Yeats - playwright, critic, and one of the greatest poets of the 20th century - directed the fledgling theater. They successfully opened with Yeats's "The Countess Cathleen," followed by Edward Martyn's "The Heather Field," and were later credited for their contributions to the Irish literary renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This renaissance - part cultural, part political - hoped to use Irish folklore and legends in new literary works that would bolster the cause of independence.

Miss Horniman gave the group the building rent-free, along with a small subsidy, until she and the Abbey parted ways. The Englishwoman was enormously insulted that the theater did not close its doors upon the death of King Edward VII in 1909.

Still, the theater continued, and many of Yeats's verse plays were first staged there, including his "Deidre" (1906), "The Land of Heart's Desire "(1911), "The Player Queen" (1919), and his translations of the two parts of the "Oedipus" (1926 and 1927). Lady Gregory's numerous short comedies also appeared at the Abbey for the first time.

John Millington Synge, however, was the man who put the theater on the map.

Synge, who was discovered by the movement in its pioneer days, went on to become a dramatist of international fame. Born in 1871, he was educated at the renowned Trinity College in Dublin.

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