The Druid company onboard a ship bound for Inis Meáin in 1982 to perform The Playboy of the Western World by J. M. Synge.
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. The company has toured the length and breadth of Ireland as well as touring internationally to the UK, 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:
- Tony (Antoinette Perry) Awards
- Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards
- Sunday Independent Theatre Award
- Edinburgh Fringe First Awards
- Irish Theatre Award
- UK Theatre Awards
- Time Out Theatre Award (London)
- Stewart Parker Trust Memorial Award
- Evening Standard Award
- Writers Guild Award (London)
- Lucille Lortel Award
- The Outer Critics Circle Award
- Obie Award
Production highlights from across Druid's five decades of work include:
- 1985, Conversations on a Homecoming by Tom Murphy, world premiere in Galway, a radical reworking of an earlier work, The White House
- 1985, Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy, world premiere in Galway starring Siobhán McKenna, Marie Mullen and Mary McEvoy
- 1996, The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, in a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre, which went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Director for Garry Hynes, the first woman to win an award for directing in the history of the Tony Awards
- 1996-2000, The Leenane Trilogy by Martin McDonagh, in a co-production with Royal Court Theatre, London
- 2005, DruidSynge – all six John Millington Synge plays in a single day
- 2012, DruidMurphy – Plays by Tom Murphy, a trilogy of Conversations on a Homecoming, A Whistle in the Dark and Famine
- 2015, DruidShakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV (Pts. 1&2), Henry V, a new adaptation by Mark O’Rowe in a co-production with Lincoln Center, New York
- 2018, DruidShakespeare: Richard III in a co-production with the Abbey Theatre
- 2016-2018, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett which opened at Galway International Arts Festival and by the end of 2018 had toured Ireland twice, played at the Abbey Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival and several US cities and prestigious venues
- 2020, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in a version by Tom Murphy which opened at the Black Box Theatre, Galway and became the first Irish theatre production to be live streamed to cinemas across Ireland and the UK
- 2020, DruidGregory - five of Lady Gregory’s one-act plays, performed by a company of 12 actors and musicians, and directed by Garry Hynes, on a 13-venue, 4-week tour of Gregory’s beloved county Galway
- 2023, DruidO'Casey: Seán O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy (The Plough and the Stars, The Shadow of a Gunman and Juno and the Paycock), performed in single-day theatrical events across Ireland and the US
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.
- Originality: We will be leaders, offer new perspectives and be original in our thinking and our practice
- Community: We work in the community, for the community and as a community
- Respect: We value and respect the individual performer, audience member and staff, recognising all to be essential in the making of good theatre
- Boldness: We will be confident and courageous, always willing to take artistic risk
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The Guardian
One of the world’s great acting ensembles
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The Irish Times
One of the best [theatre companies] in the English-speaking world
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Irish Independent
Ireland's most prestigious theatre company
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Irish Independent
The most successful Irish theatrical export ever
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The Irish Times
A world-class company rooted in the cultural fabric of Galway
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Irish Independent
[a] dynamic Galway-based alternative national theatre
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The New York Times
Any New York visit by the Druid Theatre Company of Galway is an event not to be missed
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The New York Times on Garry Hynes
The pre-eminent director of Irish drama
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The Guardian on Garry Hynes
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.
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