Graham McLaren News

The Abbey Theatre Gala is an annual celebration of Ireland's National Theatre. Hosted by the Westbury Hotel, on Thursday 14th November, this year's event honoured Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy for his contribution to Irish theatre.

The Abbey Theatre shares its deep regret today at the loss of a man of many talents - poet, author, Aosdána member, former Cavan goalkeeper and beloved playwright Tom MacIntyre.

1980. The Dublin docklands. Family and friends gather at their local pub after the funeral of their beloved patriarch, a prominent and well-respected docker.  The gathering is timely as they are inadvertently the final patrons of the establishment. The following morning the pub is due for demolition. Caught in the flurry of Ireland's massive social and economic reform, they gather to mourn the passing of a soul, a pub and their entire way of life.

Directors of the Abbey Theatre, Graham McLaren and Neil Murray, today announced two productions set to delight audiences this winter. The first, a major new Abbey Theatre production, from the Irish canon, of Drama at Inish; followed by Collapsing Horse's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, a magical show for all the family.

The Abbey Theatre will produce Last Orders At The Dockside, the world premiere of a new play by critically-acclaimed playwright Dermot Bolger, directed by Abbey Theatre Co-Director Graham McLaren.

This year's Dublin Theatre Festival programme reflects with many contemporary topics - but also reaches beyond, to a poetic enquiry about the times we live in. Over three weeks performances include 10 World Premieres, reimagined classic texts, inspiring international projects from Australia, Belgium Estonia, Portugal, Sweden, the UK and the USA, and an expanded season of Theatre for Children.

In September 2019, the Abbey Theatre will premiere This Beautiful Village by Abbey Theatre Associate Playwright Lisa Tierney-Keogh on the Abbey Stage. After 10 years writing in New York and heading up the American wing of Waking the Feminists, this marks the critically-acclaimed Irish playwright's debut at Ireland's National Theatre.

​​​​​​​Dublin Based Theatre Collective THEATREclub, who are celebrating their tenth year, are set to make their debut on the Abbey Stage with It was easy (in the end). An Abbey Theatre and THEATREclub co-production, It was easy (in the end) opens at the Abbey Theatre on 26 April until 4 May 2019. Tickets from €13 including booking fee are on sale now from the box office.

Formerly banned by the Irish censorship board in 1950's Ireland, The Country Girls tells the tale of love in all its incarnations: unconditional, dutiful, compassionate, possessive, devoted, illicit, unrequited, first love. Two fiercely smart young girls have their delicate bonds cemented during a fateful day of triumph and tragedy. Kate (Grace Collender) and Baba (Lola Petticrew) were a marvellous double act. Solemn friends, confidants, partners in crime, frenemies. Youthful (were they 16 or were they 24?) and delightfully polished actors, Kate and Baba navigated us through the turbulent waters of innocent, naive love. With the blind leading the blind, we witnessed their recurrent shipwrecks in slow motion, then they resolutely reassembled and set sail again.

We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and voted on by you - the local theatergoers!

It's the last week to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Over the last two years, the Abbey Theatre has welcomed close to 300,000 audience members to 97 productions and events, not only at the Abbey Theatre, but also in pubs, theatres and venues across Ireland and beyond.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Ireland Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Jimmy's Hall is based on the true story of a tin barn built on a farm in Leitrim by Jimmy Gralton in the 1920s. His vision of a haven for the local community to congregate for music, dance and lively discourse is perceived as a menace by the local establishment, including the Catholic Church, then at the height of their influence in Ireland. The church soon wield their political influence to banish the 'revolutionary' Gralton from Ireland.

After last year's sell-out tour of pubs across Ireland, the Abbey Theatre's Two Pints by Roddy Doyle is back for another round stopping off at pubs in Ireland and the UK. Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, Two Pints will head back on the road in August and September. The tour kicks off in The Flowing Tide on Lower Abbey Street in Dublin, before performances in Carlow, Louth, Longford, Derry, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland.

On Thursday, June 16th, 1904 a young man and his new belle spent their first day together wandering the streets of Dublin. The experience had such a profound impact on him that over the following 2 decades he commemorated the milestone by writing a fictional account about the lives of a group of Dubliners on that eventful day. The young man was James Joyce, that day is now universally known as Bloomsday, and his immortal novel, is Ulysses.

At a meeting of the Abbey Theatre's Board of Directors on 5 June 2018, actor Bosco Hogan was appointed to the Board of the Abbey Theatre for a term of three years. Bosco was appointed to the Board on a recommendation from the Selection Committee [Dr. Frances Ruane (Chair of the Abbey Theatre), Sheila Pratschke (Chair of the Arts Council) and Prof. Chris Morash (Vice-Provost of Trinity College Dublin)] and he will take up his appointment later this month.