Irish theatre playwright now stands outside the gallery entrance. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. A sea change in the history of the Irish theatre came with the establishment in Dublin in 1899 of the Irish Literary Theatre by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn. This was followed by the Irish National Theatre Society, later to become the Abbey Theatre. The history of this theatre is well documented, and its importance can be seen from the list of writers whose plays were first performed here in the early days of the 20th century. These included
Festival Theatre, Malvern the arts in the town. Funding was raised by a company dedicated to building the theatre, and 200 shares amounting to £5 each were allotted. The foundation stone of the assembly rooms of the theatre was laid down by the Earl Beauchamp on 6 July 1884, attended by Jenny Lind, Lady Emily Foley and Dr. W. T. Fernie. The theatre was inaugurated on 1 July 1885. The Festival Theatre of Malvern became known for its George Bernard Shaw productions in the 1930s. Michael W. Pharand considers the friendship and artistic relationship between Bernard Shaw and Barry Vincent Jackson to have