Menu

Playwrights

In Dublin, the whole of Irish life is represented on the stage

Some of Ireland’s and the English speaking world’s most famous playwrights have emerged from Dublin, their works influenced by the social climate of their times, and the effects of poverty, political strife, conflict and other turning points in Irish society. Some of Dublin’s renowned playwrights include George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, Sebastian Barry, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

One of Ireland’s most famous playwrights was Sean O’Casey. His experience in the Rebellion of 1916 influenced him and several other Irish writers, inspiring them to write about the Irish nationalist cause. Born in 1880, much of O’Casey work focused on Dublin’s working classes. His play Juno and the Paycock focused on the Irish Civil War and its effects of Dublin’s poor working class, while The Plough and the Stars is set in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising.

The Abbey Theatre, also known as the National Theatre of Ireland, opened in 1904.

Some of Ireland’s leading playwrights and actors have been associated with the theatre, including William Butler Yeats, and John Millington Synge. Synge’s play The Playboy of the Western World caused riots in the city following its opening at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. Similar riots followed the performance of O’Casey’s pacifist drama The Plough and the Stars in 1926. Plays from Irish greats can still be seen at the Abbey Theatre and other venues throughout Dublin, which also showcase some of Ireland’s emerging talent.