About Druid

VISION

Irish performance for the world

MISSION

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

VALUES

• 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

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.

Production Highlights

• The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh (1996), 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
• The Leenane Trilogy by Martin McDonagh, in a co-production with Royal Court Theatre, London (1996-2000)
• DruidSynge – all six John Millington Synge plays in a single day (2005)
• DruidMurphy – Plays by Tom Murphy (2012), a trilogy of Conversations on a Homecoming, A Whistle in the Dark and Famine
• DruidShakespeare: Richard II, Henry IV (Pts. 1&2), Henry V (2015), a new adaptation by Mark O’Rowe in a co-production with Lincoln Center, New York
• DruidShakespeare: Richard III in a co-production with the Abbey Theatre (2018)
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (2016-2018) 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
• Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in a version by Tom Murphy (2020) 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
• DruidGregory - five of Lady Gregory’s one-act plays, performed by a company of 12 actors and musicians in 2020, and directed by Garry Hynes, on a 13-venue, 4-week tour of Gregory’s beloved county Galway