Classic Drama (pre-1945)
See also: Ancient Classic Drama; Drama Classics series.
The Emperor Jones
An expressionistic chronicle of a black dictator's flight from his oppressed subjects.
Desire Under the Elms
A story of greed, yearning and murder with incest and infanticide, and edged with echoes of Ancient Greek tragedy within a New England farming family.
The Great God Brown
A demonstration of O'Neill's expressionistic experimentation with masks to emphasise the distinction between characters, and the lack of understanding in human relationships.
The Hairy Ape
A nightmarish condemnation of the dehumanising effects of industrialisation on the American people.
All God's Chillun Got Wings
An expressionist play about a violently dysfunctional mixed-race marriage, inspired by an old Negro spiritual.
The Bear
A one-act comic play about a reclusive young widow whose life takes a surprisingly romantic turn.
The Proposal
A brilliantly funny one-act play about a hypochondriac attempting to propose to an argumentative young woman.
A Tragic Figure
A comic duologue about a civil servant sweltering in Moscow coping with the incessant demands of his family from their summer dacha.
On the Evils of Tobacco
A bittersweet monologue in which a scientific lecture is hijacked by thoughts of domestic misery.
The Wedding
A one-act play by Chekhov in a translation by Chekhov expert Stephen Mulrine.
Swansong
A comic duologue about a melancholy old actor perked up by memories of past glories.
King Ubu
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.