Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends.
The three plays collected in this volume depict the faults, errors and foibles of ordinary people with exuberant humour, savage satire and acute observations.
When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain's forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman's choice.
'Unable to rely on heaven, we look to Shakespeare as a contemporary conscience' Peter ConradCoriolanus, a famed warrior turned politician, is driven from Rome as a traitor when he arrogantly speaks out against popular rule and loses the good will of the starving people.
'The finest, most representative instance of what Shakespeare can do' Harold BloomPrince Hal, the son of King Henry IV, spends his time in idle pleasure with dissolute friends, among them the roguish Sir John Falstaff.
'After God, Shakespeare has created most' Alexandre DumasTwo sets of identical twins, separated at sea as babies, find themselves in the same city for the first time as adults.
'I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespeare' George Bernard ShawThe beautiful and witty Katherina has sworn never to accept the demands of any would-be husband.
Moli re combined all the traditional elements of comedy - wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire - to create richly sophisticated and enduringly popular dramas.
The three plays collected in this volume demonstrate Sheridan's unerring ability to create unrivalled comedy out of ingenious plots, witty repartee, farcical situations and flamboyant characters.
Lady Windermere's Fan/Salom /A Woman of No Importance/An Ideal Husband/A Florentine Tragedy/The Importance of Being Earnest'To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness'The Importance of Being Earnest is a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette.
Strongly influenced by Classical drama, Jean Racine (1639-99) broke away from the grandiose theatricality of baroque drama to create works of intense psychological realism, with characters manipulated by cruel and vengeful gods.
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the most influential of all playwrights, the author of deeply moving dramas that explored human fears, desires and ideals.
Japanese n theatre or the drama of 'perfected art' flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries largely through the genius of the dramatist Zeami.
The Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands'Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy, challenger to the demagogue and the sophist.
Goethe's Faust reworks the late-medieval myth of Dr Faust, a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract or wager with the devil, Mephistopheles.
Medea/Hecabe/Electra/HeraclesFour devastating Greek tragedies showing the powerful brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatredThe first playwright to depict suffering without reference to the gods, Euripides made his characters speak in human terms and face the consequences of their actions.
At a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people.
King Oedipus/Oedipus at Colonus/AntigoneThree towering works of Greek tragedy depicting the inexorable downfall of a doomed royal dynastyThe legends surrounding the house of Thebes inspired Sophocles to create this powerful trilogy about humanity's struggle against fate.
Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the McCarthyism which gripped America in the 1950s.
Arthur Miller's extraordinary masterpiece, Death of a Salesman changed the course of modern theatre, and has lost none of its power as an examination of American life.
'The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world' Percy Bysshe ShelleyShakespeare's bleak and brutal tragedy begins when an ageing king, seeking a successor, rejects the young daughter who loves him and misplaces his trust in her malevolent sisters.
Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother, Lady Windermere is 'a fascinating puritan' whose severe moral code leads her to the brink of social suicide.
'This is tragedy naked, godless and unredeemed' Kenneth TynanAn embittered Roman general returns from war, having captured the Queen of the Goths and her three sons.
Heinrich von Kleist stand als "Außenseiter im literarischen Leben seiner Zeit jenseits der etablierten Lager" und der Literaturepochen der Weimarer Klassik und der Romantik.
A fascinating playbill of stories from the weird and wonderful world of Shakespearean theatre through the centuries, including distinguished actors falling off stages, fluffed lines, performances in the dark, and why you must never, ever say the name of that Scottish play, especially if you are Peter O'Toole.
The Two Noble Kinsmen - William Shakespeare - The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare.
