Drama at the Abbey Theatre

The writer Jennifer Johnston once lamented that ‘no one seems to like my plays’.

She had a point. While better known for her novels, Ms Johnston is also the writer of six plays, yet not one of them has been chosen by the Abbey Theatre for its programme, Waking the Nation 2016, to mark 1916.

Of the 10 plays on the programme, only one was written by a woman — Ali White’s ‘monologue for children’ Me, Mollser.

In fact, the work of very few Irish female playwrights have ever made it onto the main Abbey Stage over the years so the programme is at least consistent in that regard.

As a result, the Abbey experienced its own bit of drama yesterday when the ‘Waking The Feminists’ campaign group held a public meeting there.

The group wants the Abbey board to lead the way in establishing equality for women artists.

While applying gender quotas to the arts would be absurd, perhaps a female playwright might pen a drama on the controversy — one that the Abbey might find hard to resist.