Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson (4 October 1886 – 15 October 1958) was an Irish

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

producer and director who was involved with the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

Life

Robinson was born in Westgrove,

Douglas, County Cork Douglas () is a suburb, with a village core, in Cork (city), Cork city, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Douglas is also the name of the townland, Parish (Catholic Church), Roman Catholic parish, Church of Ireland parish and Civil parishes in Irel ...

and raised in a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and Unionist family in which he was the youngest of seven children. His father, Andrew Robinson, was a middle-class stockbroker who in 1892 decided to become a clergyman in the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

in the small Ballymoney parish, near Ballineen in West Cork. A sickly child, Robinson was educated by private tutor and at Bandon Grammar School. In August 1907, his interest in the theatre began after he went to see an Abbey production of plays by

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and Lady Gregory at the Cork Opera House. He published his first poem that same year. His play, ''The Cross Roads'', was performed in the Abbey in 1909 and he became manager of the theatre towards the end of that year. Shortly after joining the Abbey Theatre, he was sent to London for three months to train under

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

as his assistant while he was directing ''

Misalliance Misalliance may refer to: * Misalliance (play), a play by Bernard Shaw ** Misalliance (Playhouse 90), a US television play based on Shaw's work * Mésalliance, a marriage to an unsuitable partner {{dab ...

''. He resigned in 1914 as a result of a disastrous tour of the United States but returned in 1919. He was appointed to the board of the theatre in 1923 and continued to serve in that capacity until his death, his Abbey career and production involvement can be found in the Abbey archives Lennox Robinson - Project Gutenberg eText 19028

Lennox Robinson - Project Gutenberg eText 19028

As a playwright, Robinson showed himself as a nationalist with plays like ''Patriots'' (1912) and ''Dreamers'' (1915). On the other hand, he belonged to a part of Irish society which was not seen as fully Irish. This division between the majority native Irish (Roman Catholics) on one side and the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

(Protestants) on the other can be seen in a play such as ''The Big House'' (1926), which depicts the burning of a Protestant manor home by the IRA. Robinson's most popular plays were ''The Whiteheaded Boy'' (1916), ''The Big House'' and '' Drama at Inish'' (1933). Other plays included ''Crabbed Youth and Age'' (1924), ''The Far Off Hills'' (1928), and ''Church Street'' (1935). ''Drama at Inish'', which was presented in London and on Broadway as ''Is Life Worth Living?'', was revived as part of the 2011 season at the Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada), with Mary Haney as Lizzie Twohig. Robinson's fiction includes ''Eight Short Stories'' (1919). In 1931 he published a biography of Bryan Cooper, who had recently died. In 1951, he published ''Ireland's Abbey Theatre'', the first full-length history of the company. He published an edited edition of Lady Gregory's diaries in 1947. In 1958 he co-edited (with Donagh MacDonagh) ''The Oxford Book of Irish Verse'..'' He was also a director and producer, in 1930 he produced a play by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy called ''The Reapers'' and in 1931 he was co-director of ''A Disciple'' along with

and Walter Starkie.

Personal life

Robinson married artist Dorothy Travers Smith, the Abbey Theatre stage designer. Their correspondence is in the Library of Trinity College Dublin. Dorothy Travers-Smith's mother was spiritualist Hester Dowden, the daughter of Irish literary scholar

Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (; 3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edi ...

. He is buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Abbey Players wished to attend the service but, after having been told by the Archbishop that any Catholic setting foot in the Cathedral or graveyard would be committing a mortal sin, only one attended.

Lennox Robinson Literary Award

Awarded annually at the Lennox Robinson Literary Festival, held in Douglas, Cork; first awarded in 2014. * 2015 winner - Chang Ying-tai (張瀛太) * 2014 winner - Eoghan Harris

Dramatic works

* The Clancy Name (1908) *The Cross Roads (1909) *Harvest (1910) *The Lesson of his Life (1911) *Patriots (1912) *The Dreamers (1915) *The Whiteheaded Boy (1916) *The Lost Leader (1918) *The Round Table (1922) *Crabbed Youth and Age (1922) *Never the Time and the Place (1924) *The White Blackbird (1925) *The Big House (1926) *The Far-Off Hills (1928) *Ever the Twain (1929) *The Reapers (1930) * A Disciple (1931) * Drama At Inish (1933) *Church Street (1934) *All's Over Then? (1935) *When Lovely Woman (1936) *Killycreggs in Twilight (1937) *Bird's Nest (1938) *Roly Poly (1940) - adapted from Guy de Maupassant's story Boule de Suif *Forget-Me-Not (1941) *The Lucky Finger (1948)

References

Sources

*Igoe, Vivien. A Literary Guide to Dublin. *''Selected Plays - Lennox Robinson.'' Chosen and Introduced by Christopher Murray (Colin Smythe, 1982).

External links

*
Lennox Robinson profile
Ricorso.net; accessed 21 July 2016.
Lennox Robinson Papers, 1892-1954
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center
Lennox Robinson Literary Festival
lennoxrobinson.com
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Lennox Robinson collection, 1940-1958
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Lennox 1886 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Irish poets 20th-century Irish male writers 20th-century Irish short story writers Abbey Theatre Burials at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Irish Anglicans Irish male dramatists and playwrights Irish male poets Irish male short story writers People educated at Bandon Grammar School Writers from County Cork Irish theatre directors Irish theatre managers and producers People from Douglas, Cork