Abbey Theatre, in Dublin, is considered the national theater of Ireland. It opened in 1904 under the leadership of the Irish authors William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory. The theater specializes in plays by Irish writers about Irish subjects but also presents plays from other countries. Among its famous Irish playwrights, in addition to Yeats and Gregory, were John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey. The original theater building burned down in 1951 and was replaced in 1966 by a building holding two theaters, the Abbey and the Peacock. The company performs plays in the English and Irish languages.
