The Druid company onboard a ship bound for Inis Meáin in 1982 to perform The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge, photo by Joe O'Shaughnessy.
Founded in 1975, Druid is a touring theatre company, anchored in the West of Ireland and looking to the world.
Druid is a writers' theatre, exploring ambitious projects, reimagining classics and premiering new work annually. The company continues to nurture playwrights through its New Writing programme while also presenting classics from both the Irish and international canons. At the heart of our artistic programme is the Druid Ensemble who work closely with the Artistic Director, Garry Hynes and the Druid team to deliver a varied and ambitious body of work.
Druid passionately believes that audiences have the right to see first class professional theatre in their own communities. We’re really proud of our national touring history, having visited all 32 counties over the past five decades. We’ve performed in some of Ireland’s biggest venues and also some of its most unusual and remote, from the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin to a field on Inis Meáin. 1980 marked our first international tour and since then we've performed in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Hong Kong.
Druid began as a bold idea: to create Ireland’s first professional theatre company outside of Dublin. There were few resources with which to build a theatre company in the West of Ireland in 1975, but through sheer dedication, and with the support of the Galway community, founders Garry Hynes, Marie Mullen and Mick Lally made this bold idea a reality. That reality has since become an international success story of extraordinary dimensions.
Druid has won numerous national and international awards including:
Explore a timeline of key moments and productions in Druid's fifty-year history.
Production highlights from across Druid's five decades of work include:
1975
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Irish performance for the world.
To be a touring theatre without peer, anchored in the West of Ireland and looking to the world, producing and presenting the best work, both new and old, with boldness, agility, passion and flair.
One of the world’s great acting ensembles
One of the best [theatre companies] in the English-speaking world
Ireland's most prestigious theatre company
The most successful Irish theatrical export ever
A world-class company rooted in the cultural fabric of Galway
[a] dynamic Galway-based alternative national theatre
Any New York visit by the Druid Theatre Company of Galway is an event not to be missed
The pre-eminent director of Irish drama
Hynes is not only a first-rate director. She has that mixture of the visionary and the pragmatic you find in all great theatrical pioneers.
Sometimes you don’t even know what you’ve been craving until the real thing comes along