Plays: Classic & Pre-20th Century subject

All's Well That Ends Well William Shakespeare

Helena, a ward of the Countess of Rousillion, falls in love with the Countess's son, Bertram. Daughter of a famous doctor, and a skilled physician in her own right, Helena cures the King of France—who feared he was dying—and he grants her Bertram's hand as a reward. Bertram, however, offended by the inequality... read more »

A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare

Perhaps the most popular from all of Shakespeare's comedies, humorously celebrates the vagaries of love. The approaching wedding festivities of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are delightfully crisscrossed with in-again, off-again romances of two young pairs of Athenian... read more »

An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde

Wilde's scintillating drawing-room comedy revolves around a blackmail scheme that forces a married couple to reexamine their moral standards. A supporting cast of young lovers, society matrons, and a formidable femme fatale exchange sparkling repartee, keeping the action of the play at a lively pace. read more »

Antony and Cleopatra William Shakespeare

A magnificent drama of love and war, this riveting tragedy presents one of Shakespeare's greatest female characters--the seductive, cunning Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The Roman leader Mark Antony, a virtual prisoner of his passion for her, is a man torn between pleasure and virtue, between sensual indolence and duty... read more »

As You Like It William Shakespeare

When Rosalind is banished by her uncle, who has usurped her father's throne, she flees to the Forest of Arden where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves - now a fellow exile - and resolves to remain in disguise to test his feelings for her. A... read more »

Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw

Set in Egypt, Caesar and Cleopatra, is a drama in which the 50-year-old Roman general meets the childish young Queen and exerts a fatherly influence on her. read more »

Candida George Bernard Shaw

Delve into a hilarious examination of Victorian love, manners, morals, and marriage written by the author of Pygmalion. In Candida, George Bernard Shaw gives us the story of the misbegotten love triangle that springs up between a reverend, his putatively prim and proper wife, and a love-struck and starry-eyed young... read more »

Cymbeline William Shakespeare

The King of Britain, enraged by his daughter's disobedience in marrying against his wishes, banishes his new son-in-law. Having fled to Rome, the exiled husband makes a foolish wager with a villain he encounters there - gambling on the fidelity of his abandoned wife. Combining courtly menace and horror, comedy and... read more »

Egmont Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A play written in 1787 and originally with music composed by Beethoven. Egmont is a Flemish warrior whose nemesis is the Duke of Alba. Heeventully ends up in prison, sentenced to death. In his final speech, Egmont calls to his people for freedom and to never give up the fight against their oppressors. read more »

Hamlet William Shakespeare

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the... read more »

Henry V William Shakespeare

Henry V is the most famous and influential of Shakespeare's history plays. Its powerful patriotic rhetoric has resounded down the ages, gaining eloquent expression in Laurence Olivier's renowned film. Henry himself, astute and charismatic, who led his 'band of brothers' to victory in the Battle of Agincourt, could... read more »

Henry VI William Shakespeare

Displaying the bold vision and growing skill of a young playwright, these are Shakespeare’s first three history plays, covering some sixty tumultuous years of English history. Their pageantry, violence, and stirring speeches excite audiences with action as well as character, and midway through the final play in... read more »

Henry VIII William Shakespeare

Desperate for a son and heir, King Henry VIII risks both his realm and his immortal soul when he divorces Katherine of Aragon in favour of Anne “Bullen.” The last of Shakespeare’s histories, Henry VIII remains famous for more than just its subject matter—a mishap during the performance of the play resulted... read more »

Iphigenia in Tauris Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In King Thaos's kingdom, Iphigenia is the priestess of Artemis who takes the lives of strangers in sacrifice for the gods. Until the day two special strangers are brought to her -- strangers who she recognizes: Orestes, her brother, and Pylades, their cousin. To keep the king from sacrificing her family, the three... read more »

King John William Shakespeare

England is forced into war when the French challenge the legitimacy of Johns claim to the throne and are determined to install his nephew Arthur in his place. Political principles, hypocritically flaunted, are soon forgotten as the French and English kings form an alliance based on cynical self-interest. And as the... read more »

King Lear William Shakespeare

King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest and most savage plays, tells the story of the foolish and Job-like Lear, who divides his kingdom, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear’s failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy. read more »

Love's Labour's Lost William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to foreswear the company of women for three years of study and... read more »

Lycidus Aphra Behn

Being an account from Lycidus to Lysander, of his voyage from the Island of Love: from the French / by the same author of The voyage to the Isle of Love. read more »

Measure for Measure William Shakespeare

In the Duke's absence from Vienna, his strict deputy Angelo revives an ancient law forbidding sex outside marriage. The young Claudio, whose fiancée is pregnant, is condemned to death by the law. His sister Isabella, soon to become a nun, pleads with Lord Angelo for her brother's life. But her purity so excites... read more »

Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare

The action is set in Sicily, where Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, has recently defeated his half-brother, the bastard Don John, in a military engagement. Apparently reconciled, they return to the capital, Messina, as guests of the Governor, Leonato. There Count Claudio, a young nobleman serving in Don Pedro's army... read more »

Othello William Shakespeare

Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination (between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona), with elopement, and with intense mutual devotion and that ends precipitately with jealous rage and violent deaths. He sets this story in the romantic world of the... read more »

Richard II William Shakespeare

Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s finest works: lucid, eloquent, and boldly structured. It can be seen as a tragedy, or a historical play, or a political drama, or as one part of a vast dramatic cycle which helped to generate England’s national identity. Today, to some of us, Richard II may appear conservative... read more »

Richard III William Shakespeare

An account of the brutal and bloody rise of King Richard III to the throne, Shakespeare’s play depicts the short-lived monarch’s ruthless campaign for power, which resulted in the deaths of two of his brothers. Disfigured, hunchbacked, and cruel, King Richard’s unpopularity with the nobility crippled his... read more »

Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare

A tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young 'star-crossed lovers' whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are... read more »

Silas Marner George Eliot

Accused of a crime he didn't commit and unjustly forced from his home town, Silas lives a reclusive and godless life, finding love and companionship only in material objects. It will take the theft of his gold and the discovery of an abandoned infant to remind him of the importance of human relationships and faith... read more »

Sir Patient Fancy Aphra Behn

Sir Patient Fancy, a hypochondriacal old alderman, has taken a second wife, Lucia, a young and beautiful woman who, although feigning great affection and the strictest conjugal fidelity, intrigues with a gallant, Charles Wittmore, the only obstacle to their having long since married being mutual poverty. However... read more »

The Amorous Prince Aphra Behn

Set in Florence, and preoccupied with the collision of rampant sexuality and women’s virtue, Behn's second play parodies the aristocratic attitudes of Charles II's court, comically exploring the effects of depravity and decadence in the highest echelons of society. The main plot concerns Prince Fredrick's erotic... read more »

The Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare

Hilarious fun, this early comedy is filled with the merry violence of slapstick and farce. When two sets of twins, separated and apparently lost to each other, all end up in the rowdy, rollicking city of Ephesus, the stage is set for mix-ups, mayhem, and mistaken identity--plus the timeless puns, jokes, gags, and... read more »

The Dutch Lover Aphra Behn

Sil. Why--I would have thee do--I know not what-- Still to be with me--yet that will not satisfie; To let me--look upon thee--still that's not enough. I dare not say to kiss thee, and imbrace thee; That were to make me wish--I dare not tell thee what. read more »

The False Count Aphra Behn

Don Carlos, Governor of Cadiz, has been contracted to Julia, currently married to the rich old Francisco, and in order to gain her, mans a captured Turk galley; and whilst she and her husband are taking a pleasure trip in a yacht, are boarded and made prisoners by the supposed corsairs, who carry them off to a... read more »

Subject: Plays: Classic & Pre-20th Century