Gate Theatre

Gate Theatre

Building
Type	Theatre
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Construction
Completed	1928
Design team
Architect	Michael Scott

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists. The theatre later moved to 1 Cavendish Row (part of the Rotunda Hospital complex) where leading Irish architect Michael Scott undertook the revisions necessary to the room to convert it into a theatre.

Edwards/McLiammoir Productions presented European plays in sharp contrast to the county kitchen fare available at the Abbey Theatre bringing the Irish Premieres of Ibsen and other such dramatists to the Irish public.

Orson Welles, James Mason and Michael Gambon started their acting careers at The Gate.

In December 1983 the directorship of the Gate was handed to Michael Colgan. In 1991 the Gate became the first theatre in history to launch a full retrospective of the nineteen stage plays of Samuel Beckett. This festival was repeated at the Barbican Centre in London and New York's Lincoln Center.

The Gate also featured three separate festivals of the works of Harold Pinter, the first theatre in Europe to do such retrospectives.

Trivia

As MacLiammoir and Edwards were lovers and the Gate's main rival was the Celtophile Abbey Theatre, it was commonly said that the Dublin theatre-going public had the choice of "Sodom and Begorrah".

References

• Gate Theatre Web site

Coordinates: 53°21′10″N 6°15′43″W / 53.35278°N 6.26194°W / 53.35278; -6.26194

This European theatre-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This article about an Irish building or structure is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e