See Irish theatre and Irish actors in the West End

Mark St. Patrick's Day by celebrating all the Irish theatre, Irish playwrights, and Irish actors you can see in the West End right now. Don't miss out!

If you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, then head to a theatre! The West End is teeming with Irish talent — hardly surprising since Ireland itself has a long and remarkable theatrical tradition.

William Congreve, one of the leading poets and playwrights of the Restoration era, grew up in Ireland and studied at Trinity College, Dublin. In the following centuries, the country produced great playwrights like Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer), Richard Sheridan (The Rivals and The School for Scandal), and Dion Boucicault (London Assurance, The Octoroon).

Oscar Wilde’s remarkable social comedies, like An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, are still treasured today, while fellow Irishman George Bernard Shaw is renowned for his more polemical work, like Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and Pygmalion.

More recently, Ireland has produced the likes of John Millington Synge (The Playboy of the Western World), Seán O’Casey (Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars), Enda Walsh (Disco Pigs, Once), Conor McPherson (The Seafarer, Girl from the North Country), Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Hangmen), Marie Jones (Stones in His Pockets), and of course the great modernist Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot, Endgame). Not to mention the stream of wonderful actors, directors, and creatives, and great Irish stories – like Jez Butterworth’s play The Ferryman and Tim Edge's Under the Black Rock.

There's also a plethora of Irish actors taking over the West End too. Poldark actor Aidan Turner currently stars in Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Meanwhile, Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal is set to return to A Streetcar Named Desire, and Rachel Tucker will lead an Annie Get Your Gun concert at the London Palladium.

Photo credit: Paul Mescal in A Streetcar Named Desire (Photo courtesy of production)