SPREADING THE NEWS: RTÉ partners with Abbey Theatre to mark 120 years with special event

SPREADING THE NEWS

RTÉ partners with Abbey Theatre to mark 120 years with special event

Abbey Stage, Abbey Theatre

Recorded live at 6pm, Sunday 8th December, 2024

Broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 6pm on Friday 27th December 2024

The Abbey Theatre has today announced details of Spreading the News, a special event to mark 120 years of the National Theatre of Ireland, taking place on the Abbey Stage at 6pm on Sunday, 8th December. 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.

A number of tickets go on general sale today for this celebratory event and can be purchased through www.abbeytheatre.ie or in person at the theatre.

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

“that freedom of experiment … without which no new movement in art or literature can succeed” – Abbey Theatre founding manifesto

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 will be led by a company of well-known Irish artists who have performed in the theatre over the years. They will play a range of scripts, characters and speeches, embracing the groundbreaking stories, work and performances that have been at the heart of the National Theatre of Ireland since its foundation, and will be accompanied by live music.

Mindful of the Abbey Theatre’s rich history while being boldly forward looking, Spreading the News will interrogate ideas of breaking and rebuilding, the need for a national theatre yesterday and today and look at how audiences and artists converse through the artform.

Commenting, Co-Directors of the Abbey Theatre, Artistic Director Caitríona McLaughlin and Executive Director Mark O’Brien, said: “Experiments have unknown outcomes, they can confuse, confound or outrage. They can prove or disprove hypotheses, raise questions and shake whole worldviews. This spirit of experimentation brought about the formation of the Abbey in 1904, and it is alive and well in 2024.

“Through words, performance and music, Spreading the News is an opportunity to reflect on this legacy of experimentation and possibility. We are grateful for the partnership of RTÉ to capture this moment in time and to ensure it is shared with as wide an audience as possible.”

Clíodhna Ní Anluain, RTÉ Arts and Culture producer for Spreading the News added: “RTÉ is delighted to partner with the Abbey Theatre in jointly presenting this live event on the Abbey Stage and as a sound experience for our audience on RTÉ Radio 1. RTÉ recognises and salutes the achievement of this milestone for our National Theatre, as the centenary of Irish broadcasting approaches. Our two cultural institutions capture, challenge and celebrate Irish life at home and internationally, as well as bringing international experience and expression to our audiences.

“Central to RTÉ are partnerships to attract the broadest audience, while supporting and fostering the brilliant range and diversity of Irish creative and performing artists. Lady Gregory was someone of unfailing determination, who pushed boundaries and experimented, so that we could know ourselves better. Like RTÉ, she recognised the power of the local to tell universal stories, embracing language, voices and experiences and putting them literally centre stage. We look forward to developing this important partnership with the Abbey Theatre into the future.”

For more information, visit www.abbeytheatre.ie.

Media contacts

Abbey Theatre: Stephen Moloney, Communications Manager, Abbey Theatre | stephen.moloney@abbeytheatre.ie

RTÉ: Neil O’Gorman, Corporate Communications Manager, RTÉ | neil.ogorman@rte.ie

About the Abbey Theatre

As Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey Theatre’s ambition is to enrich the cultural lives of everyone with a curiosity for and interest in Irish theatre, stories, artists and culture. Courage and imagination are at the heart of our storytelling, while inclusivity, diversity and equality are at the core of our thinking. Led by Co-Director’s Caitríona McLaughlin (Artistic Director) and Mark O’Brien (Executive Director), the Abbey Theatre celebrates both the rich canon of Irish dramatic writing and the potential of future generations of Irish theatre artists.

Ireland has a rich history of theatre and playwriting and extraordinary actors, designers and directors. Artists are at the heart of our organisation, with Marina Carr and Conor McPherson as Senior Associate Playwrights and Caroline Byrne as Associate Director.  The Abbey Theatre Resident Directors are Esosa Ighodaro, John King, Lianne O’Shea and James Riordan.

Our stories teach us what it is to belong, what it is to be excluded and to exclude. Artistically our programme is built on twin impulses, and around two questions: “who we were, and who are we now?” We interrogate our classical canon with an urgency about what makes it speak to this moment. On our stages we find and champion new voices and new ways of seeing, our purpose – to identify combinations of characters we are yet to meet, having conversations we are yet to hear.

About RTÉ

RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) is Ireland’s national public service media organisation, providing comprehensive, cost-effective, free-to-air television, radio and online services to the public in Ireland and to audiences internationally.

RTÉ services are impartial in accordance with statutory obligations. At its heart, RTÉ is a creative organisation, making and commissioning a broad range of high-quality programmes and content for audiences of all ages, in English and in Irish. RTÉ airs the vast majority of the top 50 television programmes broadcast by any channel available in Ireland every year.

RTÉ’s television services are RTÉ One, RTÉ One+1, RTÉ2, RTÉ2+1, RTÉjr and the RTÉ News channel., while RTÉ also operates four primary Radio stations – RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTE’s range of digital services, includes the number 1 news and entertainment website in Ireland – RTE.ie, RTÉ Radio Player and RTÉ  Player, which had a record year in 2023 with over 105 million streams. RTÉ Player is also a go-to on demand destinations for top-class Irish content for kids, alongside RTÉ’s two curated YouTube channels, RTÉjr and RTÉ Kids and award-winning RTÉjr Podcasts on rte.ie. RTÉ is currently developing new RTÉ Audio and RTE News Apps.

RTÉ Archives maintains a collection of audiovisual recordings, photographs and documents relating to RTÉ output from 1926 to the present day on behalf of the nation.

In 2023, there were over 3.45 million visits to the specially curated RTÉ Archives website for the public to explore a wide range of content and subject matter from a record of Irish life captured by RTÉ radio and television.

The ever-popular RTÉ Concert Orchestra has since 1948 brought a wide repertoire of music to new audiences and supported national and international artists through live, broadcast and recorded performances and regularly performs a wide range of material to audiences in venues and locations across the country.

Saorview, Ireland’s first free-to-air digital television service, is owned and managed by RTÉ, and includes RTÉ’s television and fm radio services.

The Abbey Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of

The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Department for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media