Analysis: Much of the theatre's early archive was lost in the 1951 fire and the doors would remain closed for 15 years
By Barry Houlihan, University of Galway
It played out like the ending of a tragic scene. Dubliners gathered in the cool July midnight air of 1951 as flames spread through the stage and auditorium of the Abbey Theatre, the national theatre of Ireland, eventually collapsing the roof. By 2am on 18 July, the street audience of Dubliners soon returned to their beds. But the damage was done; fire had devastated the theatre, which only hours earlier had seen a production of Sean O'Casey’s classic play, The Plough and the Stars. It would take fifteen years for the Abbey to be rebuilt, and with it another storied chapter in the history of one of the world’s best known theatres.
O’Casey’s play had roused Dublin audiences when originally staged at the Abbey in 1926. Set in the Dublin tenements of a decade earlier, the play was famously critical of the decision of the Volunteers to initiate the 1916 Rising, and also of the looting of city businesses by the poor and middle classes alike. While the tragedy of the dying young girl Mollser, and the fate of 'red lipped’ Nora Clitheroe would question what new Republic was being fought for at all.
The play closes with a group of English ‘Tommies’ in army uniform singing Keep the Home Fires Burning, originally composed by Ivor Novello and popular with Irish audiences through a rendition by Count John McCormack. The lyrics of the ‘home fires burning’ proved ironic as huge losses to Abbey Theatre scripts, papers, props, costumes, and equipment were suffered, as well as, of course, devastating damage to the stage, roof, and main auditorium.
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From RTÉ Archives, in a clip from 1951 Theatre producer and director Lennox Robinson describes how the Abbey Theatre deliberately set itself on fire
Lennox Robinson, playwright and director, spoke of the scene of the Abbey fire, stating: "It went up in flames and in glory reflecting the glory of its players and playwrights. The players and playwrights have not perished and the Abbey Theatre is as vital today as it was yesterday."
Ernest Blythe, Managing Director of the Abbey Theatre said that "the Abbey was not merely a building. It is a company and we have a tradition to uphold". Blythe added that the only time the theatre closed in its history was in fact during Easter week of 1916. They were determined that the show would go on. By 3.30pm on the 18 July, Ria Mooney, producer of The Plough and the Stars, gathered the cast for rehearsals and the play went ahead that night in the basement studio stage at the Abbey, the Peacock, which was unaffected by the fire, but seated just 102 patrons that night, a fraction of the main theatre’s capacity.
Earlier that same day, Abbey member Geoff Golden rescued from the smouldering site a framed note from the British Theatre Censor, banning certain lines in J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, which had hung in the Green Room. The Abbey gong was pulled from water by a Dublin fireman at the scene. The same gong was sounded on the new Abbey stage upon its grand reopening in 1966, struck by Sean Barlow, then oldest company member of the Abbey, and stage manager at the time of the fire in 1951.
The Abbey fire made headlines around the world as well as at home. Calls to fundraise across the United States appealed to the "patriotism and public spirit of the Irish diaspora". In Belfast, George Findlater, Manager of the Belfast Empire Theatre of Varieties, and whose family owned the Dublin Olympia Theatre, telegrammed Ernest Blythe offering a sum of €250 to begin a subscription fund for the rebuilding process.
As plans to fund and design a new Abbey Theatre took form, the Abbey company decamped to the unsuitable Queen’s Theatre on Pearse Street, a much larger venue, noted as being cold, draughty, and with acoustics unsuited to the literary form of Abbey plays. It was more accustomed to Gilbert and Sullivan operas, melodramas and music hall variety. The design for the new Abbey fell to architect Michael Scott with French theatre designer Pierre Sonrel as consultant architect. The new auditorium for the main Abbey stage sat 628 people, an increase of around one hundred seats.
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From RTÉ Archives, Architect of the new Abbey Theatre Michael Scott speaks to Patrick Gallagher about both his excitement and apprehension when he landed the job of designing the new building
The new theatre's designs had multiple early visions which were not developed for many reasons, such as the adjoining building, Tommy Lennon’s The Abbey Bar, not being possible to purchase (or at least the Irish Government not providing the relevant investment to acquire them). One of Scott’s plans envisioned the new Abbey running down to the river Liffey, where the front entrance would be, and from where an elevated balcony would allow audiences to step out over the water and view the city before taking to their seats for a show.
Scott's plans also provided for having the main Abbey stage and the smaller studio Peacock stage built back-to-back with the dividing wall removable when required to create a larger single auditorium. Those plans were not developed and the Peacock remained on the basement level, which provided its own challenges in terms of Dublin Council regulations on fire, access, and safety. Scott talked of his design for the new theatre which was rebuilt on the site of the old Abbey. This was partly due to sentimentality of the Abbey Board of Directors, Scott claimed, while also acquiescing that it did make logical sense also. Scott’s new Abbey, he said, was larger yet intimate, more mechanised including a movable ceiling for adjusting lighting and equipment efficiently.
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From British Pathé, Eamonn de Valera arriving at the site where the new Abbey theatre is to be built
The Foundation stone for the present Abbey Theatre building was laid on the 3rd of September 1963. President of Ireland Éamon de Valera officially opened the new Abbey Theatre in Dublin on 18 July 1966, fifteen years to the day after the old theatre was destroyed.
Recall The Years devised by former Artistic Director Walter Macken, was the opening show of the new Abbey. A medley of previous Abbey hits and scenes from its history, it was not a thoroughly inspiring look to the future of Irish theatre. However, it was fitting that the first words spoken on new Abbey stage were those of Lady Augusta Gregory, a founding member, important playwright and writer of the Gaelic Revival, and spoken by actor Angela Newman. The event was also a bridging of past and present, tradition and future, with many long serving Abbey members present, including Kathleen Barrington and Eileen Crowe, as well as a new generation of actors such as Sinéad Cusack, Donal McCann and Stephen Rea.
The remnants and ripples of the Abbey fire are still felt decades later. While much of the theatre’s early archive was lost in the fire, vast amounts of its historical papers as well as subsequent decades of files and show recordings were all digitised and preserved in a project partnership with University of Galway.
The stones of the original Abbey facade also survive – but in the Dublin garden of 93-year old Joan Hanley, where they have lain for over sixty years. Her late husband, Daithí was Dublin City Architect at the time and couldn’t abide the 720 granite blocks of the theatre’s walls being sent to landfill. Hanley brought the blocks to their home, along with original theatre signage, where they remained. The blocks have recently been moved to the care of the OPW where they will be cleaned and catalogued, preserving the walls that housed the original theatre and adding a new chapter to the Abbey’s living history.
Barry Houlihan is an Archivist at the James Hardiman Library at the University of Galway.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ