Irish Literary Theatre

Three-year theatre project of the contemporary Irish literary revival set up in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, in 1899 by W B Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Edward Martyn (1859–1923) to produce new drama by Irish authors and on Irish subjects. In 1901, the final year of the experiment, the performances were held in the Gaiety Theatre instead of the Ancient Concert Rooms. This brought the theatre out of its elitist position, inspired a wave of dramatic activity in the capital, and eventually prepared the ground for the Abbey Theatre.

The first play produced by the Irish Literary Theatre, Yeats' The Countess Cathleen, in which a landlady sells her soul to the devil to save the lives of the famine-stricken peasants, caused a controversy because of its alleged blasphemy. Most of the other plays, such as Martyn's The Heather Field, The Bending of the Bough by George Moore (1852–1933), and The Twisting of the Rope (Casadh an tSugáin) by Douglas Hyde (1860–1949), were extremely well received.