The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir[4] with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlainn.

[5] During their first season, they presented seven plays, including Ibsen's Peer Gynt, O’Neill's The Hairy Ape and Wilde's Salomé.

[6] They offered Dublin audiences an introduction to the world of European and American theatre as well as classics from the modern and Irish repertoire.

The company played for two seasons at the Peacock Theatre and then moved to the 18th Century Rotunda Annex - the ‘Upper Concert Hall’, the Gate's present home, with Goethe's Faust opening on 17 February 1930.

From the 1980s onwards the Gate, under the directorship of Michael Colgan, cemented its international relationship, touring plays around the world for audiences from Beijing to New York.