Lady Augusta Gregory's play
Spreading the Newspremiered on December 27, 1904 as part of a quadruple bill to celebrate the opening of the Abbey Theatre, the new and permanent home of the Irish National Theatre Company. Although the illustriousness of this occasion speaks highly of Gregory's status within the National Theatre, which she had helped to found five years earlier, critics who attended that evening's productions paid relatively little attention to Gregory's play. Representative reviewers include the
Freeman's Journal, who noted that the play served its purpose by “[relieving] the atmosphere of tragedy” created by the heavier plays on the bill, and
The United Irishman, which dismissed the play as “a highly amusing but wholly improbable farce.” Yet despite this seemingly…
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Citation: Cusack, George. "Spreading the News". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16618, accessed 23 November 2024.]
