The first Shakespeare

In 1928 Dorothy Travers Smith designed the set and costumes for King Lear, the Abbey Theatre’s first Shakespeare production. Her designs, in this case for Lear’s Palace, embraced a modern aesthetic which set her work apart. The charred edges of her watercolour designs indicate their brush with the Abbey fire of 1951.

Dorothy not only worked at the Abbey Theatre as a set and costume designer, she also acted in the first play stage at the Peacock Theatre in 1927. Later she was better known as Dolly Robinson after her marriage to Lennox.