Druid's first ever international tour is a visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with four productions:

• Bar and Ger by Geraldine Aron
• A Galway Girl by Geraldine Aron
• The Pursuit of Pleasure by Garry Hynes
• Island Protected by a Bridge of Glass by Garry Hynes, featuring music composed and performed live by De Dannan

The productions are very well received by international critics and audiences alike, leading to a Fringe First award for Garry Hynes for her work on Pursuit and Islands.

In another busy year for Druid, the 1981 programme includes new productions of I Do Not Like Thee, Doctor Fell by Bernard Farrell, Master of Two Servants by Carlo Goldoni (adapted by George Mully), Dial M for Murder by Frederik Knott, The Nightingale and not the Lark by Jennifer Johnston, Geography of a Horse Dreamer by Sam Shepard, Endgame by Samuel Beckett and Hancock’s Last Half Hour by Heathcote Williams.

The programme also includes revivals of The Pursuit of Pleasure and Island Protected by a Bridge of Glass by Garry Hynes, and Bar and Ger by Geraldine Aron.

The production of Hancock’s Last Half Hour is presented in a double bill with a screening of the film Traveller, Joe Comerford's debut feature, with a script by Neil Jordan.

Druid is invited to present the inaugural production at the opening of the Hawk's Well Theatre, a new venue in Sligo.

The gala performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is attended by President of Ireland Patrick Hillery.

In the winter of 1982, after the tourists have left, Druid travel to the Aran Islands with a new production of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, the first of many trips for the company to the islands.

As well as the performances on Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr, the Playboy tour takes in Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry and Sligo.

Directed by Garry Hynes and designed by Monica Frawley, Druid’s production of M.J. Molloy’s play about the decline of the West of Ireland is a touring success around the country, concluding with a run at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.

Druid’s enduring relationship with playwright Tom Murphy begins in the spring of 1984 with a production of Famine at the Seapoint Ballroom in Salthill. The venue is almost four times the size of their home venue in the city.

Following the city run, Famine tours elsewhere in Galway as well as Clare, Mayo and Roscommon. 

Druid’s next collaboration with Tom Murphy is the world premiere of Conversations on a Homecoming, a radical reworking of an earlier play, The White House.

Having opened at the Druid Lane Theatre, it’s revived twice more that year in other Galway venues before transferring to Dublin for a run at the Gate Theatre during Dublin Theatre Festival in September, followed by a second Dublin run in December at the Olympia Theatre.

Druid celebrates its 10th anniversary with a production of John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, directed by Garry Hynes.

The 13-person cast includes Jane Brennan, Ciarán Hinds, Darragh Kelly, Pat Leavy, Seán McGinley and Marie Mullen.

Proving a very rich year for Druid’s new writing work, 1985 sees a second major world premiere of a Tom Murphy play for the company.

Bailegangaire stars Irish acting legend Siobhán McKenna in her final stage appearance alongside Marie Mullen and Mary McEvoy.

The critically acclaimed production transfers to London’s Donmar Warehouse a few months later. 

For their first ever transatlantic tour, Druid takes J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and Tom Murphy's Conversations on a Homecoming to the PepsiCo Summerfare in upstate New York, setting the scene for great stateside success in the years to come.

Conversations continues to tour into the following year with a run at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney (Druid's first tour down under) and performances at three Irish prisons.

Ray McBride, Seán McGinley, Máirtín Jaimsie and Mick Lally tackle Samuel Beckett's most famous play during a short run in Galway. Decades later, Druid would wait for Godot again (see 2016).

The programme for 1987 also includes Brendan Behan's The Hostage, directed by Jim Sheridan shortly before he returns to Dublin to shoot My Left Foot. The Hostage features a large cast of 14 including a young Sharon Shannon who performed live music in the show.

With a cast that includes Tina Kellegher, Pat Leavy and Marie Mullen, Druid presents Frank McGuinness's early work in Galway and then tours it to Westmeath, Glasgow and Donegal, where the play is set.

Jane Prowse directs A Little Like Drowning by British film director and writer Anthony Minghella.

The play is an adaptation for stage by Minghella of his first feature film and he travels to Galway to see the production.

Druid's other productions in 1989 include Brian Friel's Lovers and Ken Bourke's Wild Harvest.