The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world; from 1925 onwards it received an annual subsidy from the Irish Free State.

In addition, through its extensive programme of touring abroad and its high visibility to foreign, particularly American, audiences, it has become an important part of the Irish cultural brand.

Founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and W. B. Yeats[1] in 1899—with assistance from George Moore—it presented plays in the Antient Concert Rooms and the Gaiety Theatre, which brought critical approval but limited public interest.

[4] William worked in the 1890s with a touring company in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while his brother Frank was involved in amateur dramatics in Dublin.

In April 1902, the Fays gave three performances of Æ's play Deirdre and Yeats' Cathleen Ní Houlihan in St Theresa's Hall on Clarendon Street.

Her money helped found the Abbey Theatre and, according to the critic Adrian Frazier, would "make the rich feel at home, and the poor—on a first visit—out of place.

[7] Encouraged by the St Theresa's Hall success, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Æ, Martyn, and John Millington Synge founded the Irish National Theatre Society in 1903 with funding from Horniman.

They commissioned Yeats' brother Jack to paint portraits of all the leading figures in the society for the foyer, and hired Sarah Purser to design stained glass for the same space.

The bill consisted of three one-act plays, On Baile's Strand and Cathleen Ní Houlihan by Yeats, and Spreading the News by Lady Gregory.

In addition to providing funding, her chief role with the Abbey over the coming years was to organise publicity and bookings for their touring productions in London and provincial England.

As early as 1900, Yeats sent a letter to Lady Gregory that implied that he was confident about finding a reliable patron who, at the time, remained anonymous.

[20] However, by October 1901, he had lost interest in the ILT as a mean to express his artistic vision, as he was forced to make sacrifices to accommodate co-workers.

[21] His relationship with Horniman was essential to his projects, so much so that he declared in front of an audience that he would not accept money from Nationalists and Unionists, which forced him to change the entire politics of the INTS.

[22] Yeats, with the help of Lady Gregory, bought the Abbey back and sued Horniman for the subsidy he believed that she owed but won only on the principle,[23] and did not receive the money.

She was first brought in by Yeats as a costume designer for his play The King's Threshold, as she greatly loved his art and it was also a way for him to get closer to her.

Over the years, she put many times the theatre's value in money back into it in exchange for input on the plays being staged and respect from the company's directors.

[27] After the riots following Synge's Playboy of the Western World, she fully expressed her hatred for Irish nationalism and patriotism and threatened the Abbey once again, but when Blanco Posnet was presented and the Nationalists were appeased, she made a deal with Yeats and Lady Gregory to sell them the Theatre.

[citation needed] The Abbey's fortunes worsened in January 1907 when the opening of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World resulted in civil disturbance.

[1] The troubles (since known as the Playboy Riots) were encouraged, in part, by nationalists who believed the theatre was insufficiently political and who took offence at Synge's use of the word 'shift', as it was known at the time as a symbol representing Kitty O'Shea and adultery, and hence was seen as a slight on the virtue of Irish womanhood.

That same year, the Fay brothers' association with the theatre ended when they emigrated to the United States due to a clash with Yeats's outlook;[1] Lennox Robinson took over the Abbey's day-to-day management after Horniman withdrew financial support.

[33] With the loss of Horniman, Synge, and the Fays, the Abbey under Robinson tended to drift, suffering from falling public interest and box office returns.

The Abbey School of Ballet was established in 1927 by Ninette de Valois — who had provided choreography for a number of Yeats' plays – and ran until 1933.

In 1928, Hilton Edwards, Micheál MacLiammoir, cabaret impresario Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlainn launched the Gate Theatre Studio, leasing the Peacock from 14 October[40] and using the venue to stage works by European and American dramatists.

This change in policy which was brought about partly because of the shortage of new plays was to have serious consequences in future years when the Abbey found its stock of popular revivals exhausted.

[51] The cost of the new building was £725,000, an overspend on the original estimated £235,000, and resulted in the Dáil Committee for Public Accounts calling for an investigation into the overrun.

(1964), Faith Healer (1979) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1990); Tom Murphy's A Whistle in the Dark (1961) and The Gigli Concert (1983); and Hugh Leonard's Da (1973) and A Life (1980), helped raise the Abbey's international profile through successful runs in the West End in London, and on Broadway in New York City.

Despite the centenary, not all was well: audience numbers were falling, the Peacock was closed for lack of money, the theatre was near bankruptcy, and the staff felt the threat of huge lay-offs.

The Abbey also developed a relationship with the Public Theater in New York, where it has presented two new plays: Terminus by Mark O'Rowe and Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse.

The Abbey also made a historic move in 2009/10 by producing four consecutive new plays by women writers: B for Baby by Carmel Winter, No Romance by Nancy Harris, Perve by Stacey Gregg and 16 Possible Glimpses by Marina Carr.

Neil Murray from Wales and Graham McLaren from Scotland pursued policies involving significant touring, a wider selection of plays including shorter runs, reduced reliance on Abbey stalwarts such as The Plough and the Stars (57 productions in the theatre's history), free previews, and an emphasis on diversity.