From 1942 the Abbey Theatre began occasional productions in Irish; in time this led to a concentration on pantomime at the expense of longer and more serious work. New theatre companies emerged to redress this, and An Phéacóg Nua (The New Peacock Theatre), a small theatre specialising in Irish-language drama, was created as an extension of the Abbey. The task of presenting innovative theatre in Irish was taken up by An Damer, a theatre in the heart of Dublin. It continued the tradition of staging both original work and translations. There were professional directors working there, and the playwrights included Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Seán Ó Tuama, Brendan Behan and Máiréad Ní Ghráda. It served as a training ground for actors like Niall Tóibín who achieved distinction elesewhere. It lost its state subsidy in 1981 and closed, and the new theatre companies that arose to replace it lacked a permanent home.