- August 1748 – First performance of a bunraku based on the story of Chūshingura written by Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku, and Namiki Senryū
- August 1947 – First Edinburgh International Festival took place in Edinburgh, Scotland
- 8 August 1963 – Opening of the Singapore National Theatre, commemorating the self-government of Singapore
- 19 August 1953 – Gholam-Hossein Saedi, one of the first modern playwrights of Iran, is arrested during the 1953 Iranian coup d'état
- 23 August 1920 – Premier of The Bat, a popular and often-imitated comedy-mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood
- 24 August 1680 – Establishment of the Comédie-Française (pictured), the only state-run theatre to have its own theatre troupe, by Louis XIV