Werburgh Street Theatre
| Address | 13 Werburgh St Dublin Ireland |
|---|---|
| Owner | John Ogilby |
| Type | theatre |
| Opened | 1637 |
| Closed | 1641 |
The Werburgh Street Theatre, also the Saint Werbrugh Street Theatre or the New Theatre, was a seventeenth-century theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Scholars and historians of the subject generally identify it as the "first custom-built theatre in the city," "the only pre-Restoration playhouse outside London," and the first Dublin theatre.
The Werburgh Street Theatre was established by John Ogilby at least by 1637 and perhaps as early as 1634. It was a roofed and enclosed building, or what was then called a "private theatre" like the contemporaneous Cockpit Theatre or Salisbury Court Theatre in London (as opposed to a large open-air "public theatre" like the Globe or the Red Bull). According to one report, the theatre "had a gallery and pit, but no boxes, except one on the stage for the then Lord Deputy of Ireland, the Earl of Strafford." Ogilby had come to Ireland in Strafford's entourage, and Strafford, who was fond of the theatre, gave him every encouragement. John Aubrey termed it "a pretty little theatre." No trace of it survives, but it was located on Werburgh Street near Dublin Castle.
The playhouse was closely associated, during its short lifetime, with James Shirley, the prominent London dramatist who spent the years 1637–40 in Dublin. (Shirley left London when the theatres closed due to a severe outbreak of bubonic plague, from May 1636 to October 1637.) Shirley wrote four plays for the theatre, The Royal Master, The Doubtful Heir, The Constant Maid, and St. Patrick for Ireland; the first of these plays premiered on January 1, 1638, the last was performed in the autumn of 1639.
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