William Butler Yeats y Lennox Robinson ante el drama irlandés de crítica social: el cisne a la sombra del león

Abstract

This paper follows the play format, it structured in three acts for the start, the core and the ending in order to present the creative talent of two celebrities, they both essential for the Abbey Theatre within the frame of the Irish social drama of the early 20th Century: William Butler Yeats and Lennox Robinson. The first one gets to the top in poetry. He becomes such a gifted figure and a myth in poetry that he eclipses the second one during their close relationship. They will depend on each other, and one will be overshadowed by the other in their complete commitment to their theatre. Once and for all, Lennox Robinson will introduce the realistic school in the Abbey Theatre, a school successfully promoted in the Continent by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Through a general view of Robinson´s plays we can watch his realistic stamp on the Abbey in opposition to Yeats´s line, the former leading the way on his social dramas and satire comedies. They will get Robinson to the top as a dramatist, and allow him to be recognized in full by Yeats and his contemporaries as a «Man of the Theatre».