To celebrate 40 years of The Westbury, the team at the five-star hotel have created a special afternoon tea experience to honour Lady Augusta Gregory, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, which is this year celebrating 120 years as the National Theatre of Ireland with a special female-led programme honouring the Matriarch’s ideals.
2024 marks 40 years since The Westbury first opened its iconic Balfe Street doors. To celebrate this special anniversary, the team have created an afternoon tea experience in honour of Lady Augusta Gregory, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, who are longtime collaborators of the five-star hotel. This year The Abbey also celebrates an important milestone – 120 years of the National Theatre of Ireland – with The Gregory Project, a special programme to honour the legacy of Lady Gregory.
The Gregory Project features ambitious and unmissable new writing alongside gems from the Irish theatrical canon, with collaborations featuring important artists and partners. The body of work embodies Lady Gregory’s ideals of excellence, ambition, inclusion, risk-taking and celebration, taking their lead from her tenacious, passionate and relentless support of Irish artists, storytellers and writers.
The programme continues this summer with The Sugar Wife, written by Elizabeth Kuti and directed by Annabelle Comyn, which runs until 20 July, starring Siobhán Cullen in the role of Hannah Tewkley. Set in 1850s Dublin, this powerful new production explores the dark side of global commodities like sugar and asks urgent questions about money, marriage and morality.
Coinciding with the opening of The Sugar Wife, The Lady Gregory Afternoon Tea, served in The Gallery overlooking Dublin’s Grafton Street, includes The Westbury’s exquisite selection of freshly prepared sandwiches and scones alongside five newly created miniature handmade desserts, each inspired by a play performed on the Abbey stage and written by Lady Gregory herself.
This beautiful selection of confections includes the Choux au Craquelin, Strawberries and Mascarpone Cream, inspired by Lady Gregory’s Spreading the News, a one-act comic play which first ran at the
Abbey in December 1904; the Coconut Panna Cotta with Golden Pineapple Gel, inspired by Gregory’s The Golden Apple, performed at the Abbey in 1973; the Lemon and Blueberry Tart, inspired by Gregory’s masterpiece, Grania, a retelling of the Diarmuid and Gráinne legend which makes its debut on the Abbey stage as part of this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, 21 September to 26 October, reimagined in a contemporary context by Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre Caitríona McLaughlin;
the Gâteau Opéra, which takes its inspiration from The Rising of the Moon, an exploration of Anglo Irish relations at the beginning of the 20th century; and finally, the Raspberry and White Chocolate Crémeux, inspired by Dervorgilla, which explores themes of love, loyalty, and betrayal as well as the tensions between different social classes in medieval Ireland.
The Lady Gregory Afternoon Tea, €70 or €93 to include a glass of Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve NV, is available now. The new menu, featuring beautiful illustrations by Lisa McGuinness, includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, plus a selection of sustainably certified teas, coffees and infusions from around the world.
To book visit https://www.doylecollection.com/hotels/thewestbury-hotel/dining/afternoon-tea or thegallery@doylecollection.com or call +35316463328
Celebrate the spirit of Lady Gregory’s trailblazing legacy at The Westbury this summer. @westburydublin
