Spreading the News

Abbey Theatre, Sunday 8th December

Spreading the News will celebrate and honour the founding notion that the Abbey Theatre was established as an experiment, a fundamental idea that continues to inform the work of the theatre today.

The event is named after the play of the same name, written by Abbey Theatre co-founder Augusta Gregory, and performed on the opening night of the theatre.

The event will feature Irish artists including Barbara Bergin, Peter Coonan, Kate Gilmore, Domhnall Herdman, Patrick Martins, Seán McGinley, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Stephen Rea, Kate Stanley Brennan, Sexy Tadhg and Eileen Walsh. This company will play a range of scripts, characters and speeches written by Barbara Bergin, Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Lady Gregory, Stacey Gregg, Tom Murphy, Anna Mullarkey, Frank McGuinness, Caitríona McLaughlin, Conor McPherson, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Sean O’Casey, Mark O’Rowe, JM Synge, W.B. Yeats and Enda Walsh. These performances will embrace the groundbreaking stories and works that have been at the heart of the National Theatre of Ireland since its foundation, and will be accompanied by live music.

Presented in partnership with RTÉ, the event will be recorded in front of a live audience and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 6pm on Friday, 27th December, 120 years to the day since the theatre opened in 1904.