Plays, playscripts

Described by a later Greek historian as "e;a man seriously committed to raising a laugh"e;, Lucian exulted in the exposure of absurdity and the puncturing of pretension, and was capable of finding a comic angle on almost any subject.

Morn, a masked king, rules over a realm to which he has restored order after a violent revolution.

Living in Rome under Caligula and later a tutor to Nero, Seneca witnessed the extremes of human behaviour.

A new Penguin edition of Ibsen's two great verse plays, in masterful versions by one of our greatest living poets, Geoffrey Hill.

Henry VI Part III is the third of William Shakespeare's plays set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England, and prepares the ground for one of his best-known and most controversial plays: the tragedy of King Richard III (Richard III of England).

The plays of Jacobean dramatist John Webster are masterpieces of early seventeenth-century English theatre.

In need of money, the fat and foolish Falstaff devises a scheme to seduce two married women and steal their husbands' wealth.

After squandering his wealth with prodigal generosity, a rich Athenian gentleman finds himself deep in debt.

'Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time' Ben Jonson A poor doctor's daughter cures the King of France and, in return, is promised marriage to any nobleman she wishes.

It is only James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist that has led to the comparative neglect of his poetry and sole surviving play.

The four plays in this volume, written late in Ibsen's career as a dramatist, move away from his earlier preoccupation with people at odds with society to instead explore the inward struggle with their own thoughts, feelings and dreams.

The volume contains Richard II, Henry IV Part One, henry IV Part Two, and Henry V.

Poet and soldier, brawler and charmer, Cyrano de Bergerac is desperately in love with Roxane, the most beautiful woman in Paris.

Heracles/ Iphigenia Among the Taurians/ Helen/ Ion/ Cyclops: Of these plays, only 'Heracles' truly belongs in the tragic sphere with its presentation of underserved suffering and divine malignity.

A French courtier, secret agent, libertine and adventurer, Beaumarchais (1732-99) was also author of two sparkling plays about the scoundrelly valet Figaro - triumphant successes that were used as the basis of operas by Mozart and Rossini.

Henry VI is tricked into marrying Margaret - lover of the Earl of Suffolk, who hopes to rule the kingdom through her influence.

After the death of Henry V, the French revolt and threaten to reclaim their country from English rule.

Leaving behind both home and beloved, a young man travels to Milan to meet his closest friend.

Ibsen's greatest late plays in superb modern translations, part of the new Penguin Ibsen series.

Four of Ibsen's most important plays in superb modern translations, part of the new Penguin Ibsen series.

The 18 plays are: The Shadowy Waters; Cathleen in Houlihan; The Hour Glass; On Baile's Strabd; The Green Helmet; Deirdre; At the Hawk's Well; The Dreaming of the Bones; The Cat and the Moon; The Only Jealousy of Emer; Calvary; Sophocles' King Oedipus; The Resurrection; The Words Upon the Windwo-FPane; The King of the Great Clock Tower; The herne's Egg; Purgatory; The Death of Cuchulain.

Under the rule of King John, England is forced into war when the French challenge the legitimacy of John's claim to the throne and determine to install his nephew Arthur in his place.

Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC.

Agememnon is the first part of the Aeschylus's Orestian trilogy in which the leader of the Greek army returns from the Trojan war to be murdered by his treacherous wife Clytemnestra.

Shaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage.

Written during the long battles with Sparta that were to ultimately destroy ancient Athens, these six plays by Euripides brilliantly utilize traditional legends to illustrate the futility of war.

One of the greatest playwrights of Ancient Greece, the works of Euripides (484-406 BC) were revolutionary in their depiction of tragic events caused by flawed humanity, and in their use of the gods as symbols of human nature.

Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.

Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw.

This selection comprises: "e;THE ADMIRABLE BASHVILLE"e; "e;HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND"e; "e;PASSION, POISON AND PETRIFACTION"e; "e;THE GLIMPSE OF REALITY"e; "e;THE DARK LADY OF THE SONNETS"e; "e;OVERRULED"e; "e;THE MUSIC-CURE"e; "e;GREAT CATHERINE"e; "e;THE INCA OF PERUSALEM"e; "e;O'FLAHERTY V.

'A tearing, flaring, revivalist drama' was how Desmond MacCarthy described The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet.

Shaw's humorous satire of the medical profession.

While some of Shaw s earlier plays are still performed, his later plays, such as the ones in this volume, are barely known.

This is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes "e;The Millionairess"e;, "e;Too True to be Good"e; and "e;The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles"e;.

This volume features the play Misalliance, which explores the incongruities of human nature and family life, and Shaw's one-act burlesque, The Fascinating Foundling.

In Good King Charles's Golden Days: a true history that never happened.

Shaw's story is rife with such 'beyond opinions', as an Anglo-Irish Protestant, a Dubliner in London, and a socialist living in the aftermath of the industrial revolution.

From the fifth to the second century BC, innovative comedy drama flourished in Greece and Rome.

Following the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in the early seventeenth century, the new court of King James was beset by political instability and moral corruption.

This dramatic story recounts Mary, Queen of Scots's remaining days held captive in Fotheringay Castle.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art.

These are Shakespeare's greatest writings on power in all its forms - in love, in war, in politics and in the family.

With piercing accuracy William ongreve depicted the shallow, brittle world of 'society' where the right artifice in manners, fashion and conversation--and money--eased the passage to success.

The master of ancient Greek comic drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick, humour and cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations.

Collected in this volume are powerful dramas and psychological fiction by the nineteenth-century iconoclast now recognized as a major figure of world literature.

Mike Leigh s 1970s classic play Abigail s Party focuses on an evening of domestic hell in the guise of a suburban drinks soir e.

Oscar Wilde's audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of Mrs Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret.

'A supreme theatrical poem that has a language that eats into the soul' Michael Billington, GuardianShakeapeare's blood-soaked drama of murder, madness and the uncanny begins as Macbeth is promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by supernatural forces.

Shakespeare's immutable history of Henry's victory over the French at Agincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is also a study of war and kingship.

One of Bernard Shaw s most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire.