Lennox Robinson was responsible for many of the trends in the Irish theater during the first half of the twentieth century. His leadership developed the Abbey Theatre into one of the most respected dramatic forces of its time, and his innovation brought a diversified and sophisticated theater to the stages of Ireland.

Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson, Irish playwright, manager, producer, and director, was born in Douglas, near Cork, to Andrew Craig and Emily Jones Robinson, staunch Unionists, conservative Protestants. Troubled by poor health, Robinson received little formal education. At twenty-one, aroused by Abbey productions of William Butler Yeats's Kathleen ni Houlihan and Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon, Robinson decided upon a theatrical career and remained active in the Irish theater until his death in 1958.

Robinson's first play, The Clancy Name (1908), displayed his ability as a structural artist but also revealed his weakness for using melodrama...