The Gate Theatre is one of Ireland¿s major theatres. It has produced important new plays by such figures as Brian Friel, Conor McPherson, and Denis Johnston ¿ while also premiering significant works by other writers, including unjustly neglected women dramatists such as Mary Manning, Christine Longford, and Maura Laverty. It has made huge contributions to the art of theatre in Ireland, not only in relation to acting (launching the careers of Orson Welles, James Mason, and Michael Gambon) but also in terms of direction and design. And it has made a major contribution to the world¿s understanding of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and others.
Despite these incredible achievements, the theatre has been the subject of very little critical attention to date. This book redresses this problem; it is, in fact, the very first scholarly essay collection devoted entirely to the theatre. It gathers together leading academics and critics who explore the Gate¿s achievements in relation to the development of new Irish writing and new Irish theatre practices. The book is written with scholarly rigour but also in accessible language and would therefore be of interest to anyone with a passion for Irish theatre.

David Clare is Assistant Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, and he previously held two IRC-funded postdoctoral fellowships at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway). He is the author of Bernard Shaw¿s Irish Outlook (2016) and numerous essays on Irish and
Irish Diasporic writers.
Des Lally is a PhD candidate at NUI Galway. His research subject is «The Role of the Gate Theatre in Irish Modernism 1928-1945». He is Assistant Director of the Vassar College USA/Ireland Program and the Programme Coordinator of the Clifden Arts Festival. He co-edited (with Peter Fallon and John Fanning) Captivating Brightness: Ballynahinch, a literary celebration of Connemaräs iconic Ballynahinch Castle.
Patrick Lonergan is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has edited or written eleven books on Irish theatre, including Theatre and Globalization (winner of the 2008 Theatre Book Prize), The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh (2012), Theatre and Social Media (2015) and Irish Drama and Theatre Since 1950 (2019). He is a director of the Galway International Arts Festival, and, for Methuen Drama, he is co-editor of the «Critical Companions» series.

CONTENTS: Elaine Sisson: Experiment and the Free State: Mrs Cogley's Cabaret and the Founding of the Gate Theatre 1924-1930 - Ian R. Walsh: Hilton Edwards as Director: Shade of Modernity - Ruud van den Beuken: «Ancient Ireland comes to Rathmines»: Memory, Identity, and Diversity in Micheál macLíammóir's Where Stars Walk (1940) - Richard Pine: Micheál macLíammóir: The Erotic-Exotic and the Dublin Gate Theatre - José Lanters: Desperationists and Ineffectuals: Mary Manning's Gate Plays of the 1930s - Virginie Girel-Pietka: Denis Johnston at the Gate: a Groundbreaking yet Neglected Writer - Ciara O'Dowd: Magic Windows: Ria Mooney at the Gate Theatre - Feargal Whelan: Lord Longford's Yahoo: An Alternative National Myth from an Alternative National Theatre - Cathy Leeney: Class, Land, and Irishness: Winners and Losers: Christine Longford (1900-1980) - Audrey McNamara: Longford Productions, Bernard Shaw, and the Irish Big House - Des Lally: The Fictionalisation of Hilton Edwards and Micheál macLíammóir in the Novel Stravaganza! (1963), by Paul Smith - Anthony Roche: Brian Friel at the Gate: Lovers in Dublin and New York - Noreen Doody: «Our only thorough playwright»: Oscar Wilde and the Gate Theatre - David Clare: Goldsmith, the Gate, and the «Hibernicising» of Anglo-Irish Plays - Christopher Murray: Staging American Drama at the Gate Theatre, 1928-2016 - Graham Price: «Staging an encounter»: Brian Friel's Faith Healer, Bracha Ettinger, and the Art-Encounter-Event - Trish McTighe: «Be again, be again»: The Gate's Beckett Country - Aoife Lynch: The Gate, Endgame, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics - Emma Creedon: Harold Pinter at the Gate Theatre: «A Kind of Homecoming» - Des Lally/David Clare/Ruud van den Beuken: Gate Theatre Chronology (1928-1982): The Edwards-macLíammóir and Longford Directorates - David Clare: Gate Theatre Chronology (1983-2017): The Michael Colgan Directorate and the Appointment of Selina Cartmell.