The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928.
History
The theatre was originally built as part of the
New Assembly Rooms from 1784-86 about a decade after the construction of the original assembly rooms and rotunda (now the Ambassador Theatre).
Beginnings
The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by
Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir
with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlainn.
During their first season, they presented seven plays, including Ibsen's
Peer Gynt, O’Neill's
The Hairy Ape and Wilde's
Salomé.
They offered Dublin audiences an introduction to the world of European and American theatre as well as classics from the modern and Irish repertoire.
It was at the Gate that
Orson Welles,
James Mason, Geraldine Fitzgerald and
Michael Gambon began their acting careers.
The company played for two seasons at the Peacock Theatre and then moved to the 18th Century Rotunda Annex - the ‘Upper Concert Hall’, the Gate's present home, with Goethe's Faust opening on 17 February 1930.
Lord and Lady Longford
The newly established Gate Theatre ran into financial difficulties and a meeting was called on 12 December 1930 to announce its closure. In a surprise announcement, Lord Longford offered to buy up the remaining shares, valued at £1,200 and the theatre was saved. Longford and his wife Lady (Christine) Longford worked with Edwards and MacLiammóir at the Gate until 1936, when a split occurred and two separate companies were formed which played at the Gate for six months each. The companies also toured for six months until the death of Lord Longford in 1961.
During this period Edwards and MacLiammóir (Gate Theatre Productions) performed in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre and toured productions to Europe, Egypt and North America.
1980s–2000s
From the 1980s onwards the Gate, under the directorship of Michael Colgan, cemented its international relationship, touring plays around the world for audiences from Beijing to New York. The theatre established relationships with contemporary playwrights including
Samuel Beckett,
Harold Pinter and
Brian Friel. In 1991 the first-ever Beckett Festival was produced, presenting all 19 stage plays over three weeks. The first-ever festival of Pinter's plays followed, along with many premieres and productions of Friel's work
including the production of
Faith Healer with
Ralph Fiennes which won a Tony Award on Broadway.
Among other firsts was the production of Chekhov's Three Sisters in a new version by
Frank McGuinness with three real sisters, the award-winning
Sinead Cusack,
Sorcha Cusack and
Niamh Cusack. The production also featured the veteran star of Irish theatre and father of the three actresses,
Cyril Cusack and the Oscar-nominated actress
Lesley Manville. The production opened in March 1990 and transferred to the Royal Court Theatre in London later that year.
With the support of funders, the fabric of the building was restored and renovated under the guidance of Ronnie Tallon and Scott, Tallon Walker Architects.
Wheelchair accessibility
The Gate Theatre is an old building having been completed around 1791.
It was not designed with wheelchair access as a priority. There is a wheelchair lift at the back of the building.
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