The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists. The theatre later moved to 1 Cavendish Row (part of the Rotunda hospital complex) where leading Irish Architect Michael Scott undertook the revisions necessary to the room to convert it into a theatre.

Edwards/McLiammoir Productions presented European plays in sharp contrast to the county kitchen fare available at the Abbey Theatre bringing the Irish Premieres of Ibsen and other such dramatists to the Irish public.

Orson Welles and James Mason started their acting careers at The Gate.

In December 1983 the directorship of the Gate was handed to Michael Colgan. In 1991 the Gate became the first theatre in history to launch a full retrospective of the nineteen stage plays of Samuel Beckett. This festival was repeated at the Barbican Centre in LondonNew York's Lincoln Center. and

The Gate also featured three separate festivals of the works of Harold Pinter, the first theatre in Europe to do such retrospectives.

Trivia

As MacLiammoir and Edwards were lovers, and the Gate's main rival was the Celtophile Abbey Theatre, it was commonly said that the Dublin theatre-going public had the choice of "Sodom and Begorrah".