developed in its
service his remarkable gifts as a producer of plays. A year or two
later, Barker staged for another organization, the New Century theatre,
Professor Gilbert Murray's rendering of the _Hippolytus_ of Euripides;
and it was partly the success of this production that suggested the
Vedrenne-Barker partnership at the Court theatre, which, between 1904
and 1907, gave an extraordinary impulse to the intellectual life of the
theatre. Adopting the "short-run" system, as a compromise between the
long-run and the repertory systems, the Vedrenne-Barker management made
the plays of Bernard Shaw (both old and new) for the first time really
popular. Of the plays already published _You Never Can Tell_ and _Man
and Superman_ were the most successful; of the new plays, _John Bull's
Other Island_, _Major Barbara_ and _The Doctor's Dilemma_. But though
Shaw was the mainstay of the enterprise, it gave opportunities to
several other writers, the most notable being John Galsworthy (b. 1867),
author of _The Silver Box_ and _Strife_, St John Hankin (1869-1909),
author of _The Return of the Prodigal_ and _The Charity that began at
Home_, and Granville Barker himself, whose plays _The Voysey
Inheritance_ and _Waste_ (1907) were among the most important products
of this movement. It should also be noted that the production of the
_Hippolytus_ was followed up by the production of the _Trojan Women_,
the _Electra_ and the _Medea_ of Euripides, all translated by Gilbert
Murray.

The impulse to which were due the Independent theatre, the Stage Society
and the Vedrenne-Barker management, combined with local influences to
bring about the foundation in Dublin of the Irish National theatre. Its
moving spirit was the poet W. B. Yeats (b. 1865), who wrote for it
_Cathleen-ni-Hoolihan_, _The Hour-Glass_, _The King's Threshold_ and one
or two other plays. Lady Gregory, Padraic Collum, Boyle and other
authors also contributed to the repertory of this admirable little
theatre; but its most notable products were the plays of J. M. Synge
(1871-1909), whose _Riders to the Sea_, _Well of the Saints_ and
_Playboy of the Western World_ showed a fine and original dramatic
faculty combined with extraordinary beauty of style.

Both in Manchester and in Glasgow endeavours have been made, with
considerable success, to counteract the evils of the touring system, by
the establishment of resident companies acting the better class of
modern plays on a "shor