NHB Classic Plays

A black comedy about a question that haunts us today - what to do about an ageing population.

Nicholas Wright's sensitive version of Ibsen's late play, about a family brought low by the disgrace and imprisonment of its patriarch.

Schiller's grand historical tragedy, a battle of wits between Mary Queen of Scots and her captor, Queen Elizabeth I.

A consummate romantic comedy that dramatises the battle of the sexes with a dazzling display of Shakespeare's wit and wordplay.

Pirandello's ingenious detective story about a young woman who is hounded by the press after the death of a child in her care..

A waspish city comedy attacking the vices of hypocrisy, greed, self-indulgence and social pretension.

A classic of German expressionism by an active revolutionary who was also an accomplished poet and playwright.

A comic duologue about a civil servant sweltering in Moscow coping with the incessant demands of his family from their summer dacha.

Alfred Jarry's surreal and hilarious satire of power, greed, and bourgeois pretension, the first of his three plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu.

A sequel to King Ubu, Alfred Jarry's surreal and hilarious satire of power, greed, and bourgeois pretension. Cuckold Ubu continues the adventures of Pa Ubu.

The third and final part of The Ubu Plays, Alfred Jarry's surreal and hilarious satire of power, greed, and bourgeois pretension. Slave Ubu concludes the adventures of Pa Ubu.

Chekhov's great play about an elderly professor whose plans to sell off his rural estate threaten the livelihoods of those who have worked tirelessly to keep the estate going.

A one-act play by Chekhov in a translation by Chekhov expert Stephen Mulrine.

Chekhov's classic tragicomedy, translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

A one-act comic play about a reclusive young widow whose life takes a surprisingly romantic turn.

A brilliantly funny one-act play about a hypochondriac attempting to propose to an argumentative young woman.

A comic duologue about a melancholy old actor perked up by memories of past glories.

A bittersweet monologue in which a scientific lecture is hijacked by thoughts of domestic misery.