Abbey Theatre is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on December 14, 2004.
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This article was copy edited by Finetooth, a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, on 9 February 2008.Guild of Copy EditorsWikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsTemplate:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsGuild of Copy Editors articles
There has been some great work on editing the article to support a positive FAR, and even some old typos I had in mind fixing are gone. But in one or two cases, I wonder if a little too much detail has been removed (specific examples - around the commissioning of writers in recent times and Annie Horniman's departure), as well as removing retrieval dates for some online references. SeoR (talk) 11:07, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Noted reversal of spacing on dashes. Always a stylistic thing, I was taught, and prefer, spacing - I feel unspaced dashes lead to crowded writing. And WP allows this, per "Spaced en dashes – such as here – can be used instead of em dashes in all of the ways discussed above. Spaced en dashes are used by several major publishers, to the complete exclusion of em dashes; style manuals more often prefer unspaced em dashes. One style should be used consistently in an article." But in the interest of consistency in the article, will not space further. 195.96.72.22 (talk) 15:19, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I left a note on the talk page of Ceoil earlier today but will repeat the gist of it here. I see two problems I don't know how to fix. (1) Note 33 seems incomplete. Is it missing a web URL? (2) The text and the sources differ about the spelling of Mac Conghail. Some of the sources have it as MacConghail with no space separating the parts. I left it as Mac Conghail with a no-break code to prevent line-wrap from splitting the name, but I don't know which version is correct. A third thing I noticed on my last read-through was that the story about The Old Lady Says, 'No' does not clearly illustrate that the Abbey was enduring an artistic decline, especially since the story's veracity is in question. Was the play inferior? Is the story true? Perhaps clarification could be added to this paragraph. Finetooth (talk) 04:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The actual doubt about The Old Lady Says No! concerns the origin of the title. It is not in doubt that the Abbey rejected the play, but not necessarily because it was inferior. The opening of the play is a parody of the kind of high-minded historical drama that Yeats and Gregory wanted the Abbey to produce (and to a certain extent, wrote themselves). The rest of the play is a fairly scathing (and quite funny) satire on post-independence Ireland, and not at all the kind of play that Yeats and Gregory wanted. Gregory herself is said (somewhere, I'll look it up) to have complained that she didn't know why the whole play wasn't like the first ten minutes. Johnston may well have concocted the story about the phrase "The old lady says no!" being written on the front cover because it made for a good story, but he did indeed change the title after the Abbey's rejection. The Gate Theatre ended up making it their debut play and scored a huge success with it. It's somewhat dated now but still fun to read. I saw a production of it a few years ago. Lexo (talk) 12:10, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Quick note on spelling of Mac Conghail, as I just created the article. The Senate record uses Mac Conghail and he uses it himself (per Twitter), so I think it's safe to just plump for that version. FlowerpotmaN·(t)14:24, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In the "After Yeats" section there is the line: "During the 1940s and 1950s, the staple fare at the Abbey was comic farce set in the idealised peasant world of playwright Éamon de Valera." But this link goes to the article on the politician. Can there really also have been a playwright of the same name? Looking at earlier versions of the article I see the line originally read "...set in the idealised peasant world of Éamon de Valera" - alluding, I imagine, to the line taken by the politician. Can someone who knows the subject confirm, and redraft as necessary? - Tim riley (talk) 07:41, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Unbelievable that this question has remained unanswered for so long on a 'featured article'. The immediate error has now been corrected. A reference should certainly be provided for this section - smacks of original research as is. RashersTierney (talk) 22:49, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Done, along with some other edits, for example, there was no mention of the original actors. The whole article still needs a thorough copy-edit though. Hohenloh + 13:59, 7 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
This was a featured article early in Wikipedia's history, and I don't think it meets the modern criteria for FAC. Most importantly, it lacks citations at very many points throughout the text. (Less conspicuously, the lead section is short; the spelling veers between British and American; and there is a lot of WP:OVERLINK.) I have earlier attempted a few improvements, but I don't know enough about the subject to do much more. Would an editor who knows his or her facts like to undertake the thorough overhaul that the article needs? – Tim riley (talk) 13:27, 11 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
