Ironically enough, in light of a reading of Friel's Translations, the birth of Irish theater can be traced back to the beginning of the English administration in Dublin in the 1600s. The plays that were first produced this context were often politically tilted towards the interests of the English administration, but as theater became more popular, Irish playwrights began to write with more freedom.
Theater was likely produced in conjunction with religious stories as early as the 1300s in Ireland, but the first record of a play produced in Ireland is 1601, a staging of Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton's Gorboduc, a religious play. Throughout the 17th century, the most popular Irish playwrights were Oliver Goldsmith, author of She Stoops to Conquer, and Richard Sheridan, the author of The School for Scandal. In the 1800s, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw were at the forefront of Irish theater. George Bernard Shaw won the Nobel Prize and was the author of such plays as Pygmalion, Major Barbara, and Saint Joan. Oscar Wilde was a famous wit and writer who authored such plays as The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan.
In the 20th century, Irish theater saw the rise of such playwrights as Sean O'Casey, who wrote Juno and the Paycock, Samuel Beckett, who wrote Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Happy Days, Brian Friel, and Martin McDonagh, whose work includes The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Pillowman, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
