2025 at the Gate Theatre
As we prepare to open our final production from the 2024 line-up, THE BORROWERS, we are delighted to announce some of what’s ahead in Winter 2024, and in 2025 for the Gate Theatre.
The Gate Theatre is proud to announce its first shows for 2025, including a compelling new production of KING LEAR with Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee CONLETH HILL playing the titular monarch.
In Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Lear looks to divide his kingdom and power between his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Through feigned praise and affection, Goneril and Regan, receive their inheritance. Cordelia, the youngest who loves Lear deeply, refuses to flatter her father however and is disinherited and banished. When Goneril and Regan turn him away from their door, Lear begins a journey into madness, wandering homeless and destitute with his devoted companion, the Fool.
This powerful production will be directed by Roxana Silbert and will open at the Gate on 26th February 2025 with previews from 21st February.
May will see a new production of Emmy and BAFTA Award winner Abi Morgan’s emotional drama LOVESONG, directed by David Bolger, Artistic Director of CoisCéim Dance Theatre; Morgan’s prolific work includes the films Shame, Suffragette and The Iron Lady, TV hits Eric, The Split and The Hour, and plays including Skinned, Splendour and Tender.
Lovesong centres on a married couple, Billy and Maggie, portrayed at two pivotal points in their lives. As Maggie’s health deteriorates, their home fills with their memories and the presence of their younger selves, bringing the moving and poignant story of their lifelong relationship vividly to life. Lovesong will open at the Gate on 14th May with previews from 9th May 2025.
Priority booking for Gate Members for KING LEAR and LOVESONG is now open at gatetheatre.ie. Public bookings open from 10.30am tomorrow, Friday 8th November 2025.
Speaking about today’s announcement, Gate Theatre Artistic Director Róisín McBrinn said, ‘We are delighted to have Conleth Hill come to the Gate to embody this iconic role and I am wildly excited to see what that means in the hands of the wonderful Roxana Silbert, a former Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company who will make her Gate debut. As the Leaving Cert set text, we are proud to offer Senior Cycle students a world class production of this seminal text, further opening the Gate to new audiences.
For 30 years, David has inspired theatregoers with the phenomenal CoisCéim Dance Theatre. We are very excited that he will direct Abi Morgan’s beautiful play for us. The show will have a strong physical life which will add hugely to its enormous heart.
Both of these shows are at their most moving when they offer us the opportunity to consider the cost and value of love, family and growing old. We hope audiences will leave enriched, uplifted and deeply affected by these productions.’
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Following its sold out success this summer, the Gate is pleased to announce that its critically acclaimed production of Brian Friel’s DANCING AT LUGHNASA, directed by Caroline Byrne, will return in 2025 due to popular demand. Friel’s moving and timeless masterpiece about family, home and belonging will run at the 3Olympia Theatre from Saturday 28th June to Saturday 26th July, with previews from Thursday 26th June.
In the warmth of the Donegal harvest of 1936, the five Mundy sisters, Kate, Maggie, Rose, Agnes and Chris, love, survive, fight, and dance. This unforgettable summer brings the possibility of joy and love to these extraordinary, ordinary women.
Tickets will be available soon from 3olympia.ie.
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Erica Murray’s hit show THE LOVED ONES, a Gate Theatre co-production with Rough Magic, will tour the country in April and May 2025, visiting NASC venues including Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick, Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise, Backstage Theatre in Longford, An Grianán in Letterkenny, Town Hall Theatre in Galway, glór in Ennis, Síamsa Tíre in Tralee, and Dún Laoghaire’s Pavilion Theatre in Dublin.
Originally staged as part of Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023, The Loved Ones is set in a renovated farmhouse where Nell, a mother in mourning, prepares to scatter her son’s ashes with her grieving daughter-in-law, Orla. Cheryl-Ann, a visitor from America, meanwhile settles in for an idyllic break in the wilds of West Clare.
However, these women have their weekend plans turned upside down when an unexpected guest, Gabby, arrives looking for shelter, solace and understanding.
Dates and tickets for The Loved Ones tour are available from the individual tour venues.
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This month, the Gate is proud to welcome acclaimed theatremakers CHEEK BY JOWL to the Gate Theatre for a MASTERCLASS on November 30th and December 1st. The two-day Directing for Theatre workshop, led by Cheek by Jowl’s founders Nick Ormerod and Declan Donnellan, will be a rare and exceptional opportunity to learn from two of the most influential figures in modern theatre.
Donnellan, whose books The Actor and the Space and The Actor and the Target are seminal theatre texts, and Ormerod have made a profound impact on the global stage since founding Cheek by Jowl in 1981. Renowned for their ability to breathe new life into classical works, their productions are celebrated for their vivid, high-energy performances that illuminate the text with striking clarity and intensity.
This immersive workshop will offer participants a deep dive into their creative process, providing practical, hands-on experience in the techniques that have defined their groundbreaking productions. Attendance will be strictly by application. Those interested in attending should visit gatetheatre.ie/cheekbyjowl for more details.