Tragic Plays

The titles in the Tragic Plays Collection highlight the long tradition of exploring human suffering and folly through flawed characters and their downfalls. The Collection includes classic tragedies that reflect the genre's roots in ancient Greece, as well as Shakespearean selections and modern titles from playwrights like Tom Stoppard and August Wilson.

Publication year 458Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Classic Fiction, Mythology, Fantasy, Play: Tragedy

Agamemnon is an Attic tragedy—a work of the fifth century BCE in Athens—composed by Aeschylus (circa 525-circa 456 BCE). The play was first performed at the City Dionysia in 458 BCE. Agamemnon was the first part of the Oresteia, Aeschylus’s trilogy on the murder of Agamemnon and its grisly aftermath. It was followed by the tragedies Libation Bearers and Eumenides, which also survived, and by a satyr play titled Proteus, which was lost. The play... Read Agamemnon Summary


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Sophocles
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Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Fate, Society: Community, Emotions/Behavior: ConflictTags Classic Fiction, Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece

Ajax is an ancient Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. Its production date, the festival at which it was first presented, and the other tragedies performed alongside it remain unknown, but it is believed to be among Sophocles’s earlier plays, possibly from the 440s BC. The narrative retells a story from Trojan war mythology concerning the suicide of the hero Ajax and its aftermath, exploring the hero’s excesses, reversals of fortune, and social bonds.This study guide refers... Read Ajax Summary


Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Values/Ideas: Fate, Emotions/Behavior: GriefTags Play: Tragedy, Ancient Greece

Publication year 1947Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Relationships: Family, Society: War, Values/Ideas: Truth & LiesTags Play: Tragedy, Classic Fiction, American Literature, Military / War

All My Sons is a play by Arthur Miller, first performed in 1947. Based on a true story, All My Sons tells the story of a munitions factory owner who is accused of producing defective engines for aircraft. The play received many awards, ran for 328 shows on Broadway, and has been twice adapted as a film. This guide is based on the 2015 Penguin Classics edition of Miller’s Collected Plays. Plot SummaryJoe Keller is... Read All My Sons Summary


Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: FateTags Classic Fiction, Ancient Greece, Mythology, Play: Drama, Play: Tragedy

Sophocles, one of the three great ancient Greek tragedians, premiered Antigone in Athens circa 441 BCE. The Classical Greek theater tradition to which this play belongs began in Athens in the sixth century B.C.E. with the performance of plays in dramatic competitions at yearly religious festivals. The forms of comedy and tragedy, first developed in plays such as Antigone, have lasting influence on theater today. This study guide uses the 2003 Oxford University Press edition... Read Antigone Summary


Publication year 1944Genre Play, FictionThemes Society: Politics & Government, Identity: Femininity, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Play: Tragedy, French Literature

Publication year 1607Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Identity: Femininity, Society: Politics & Government, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Power & GreedTags Classic Fiction, Play: Tragedy, Play: Historical, Romance

Antony and Cleopatra is a play by William Shakespeare that was first performed in 1607. The plot centers around the romantic affair between a Roman general, Mark Antony, and the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Shakespeare had previously written the tragedy Julius Caesar in 1599 and this play continues to follow the history of Rome’s transformation from a republic into an empire. Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, portraying the downfall of... Read Antony and Cleopatra Summary


Publication year 1993Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Science & Technology, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Life/Time: The Past, Values/Ideas: LiteratureTags Historical Fiction, Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, Science / Nature, British Literature

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard was first performed on April 13, 1993, at the Royal National Theatre in London. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it one of the best science-related works ever written.The play has dual plot lines, one historical and one modern, which share the same physical setting. In the 19th century, the play follows the young Thomasina, a mathematical genius far ahead of her time, and her tutor, Septimus Hodge... Read Arcadia Summary


Publication year 1592Genre Play, FictionThemes Identity: Sexuality, Identity: Femininity, Society: Class, Values/Ideas: Power & GreedTags Play: Tragedy, Elizabethan Era, Mystery / Crime Fiction

Arden of Faversham is an Elizabethan play originally performed in 1592. The play’s authorship is disputed. While potential authors include Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Watson, computer stylometric analyses attribute probable authorship to William Shakespeare. The Oxford Shakespeare attributes the play to Shakespeare and an anonymous collaborator, potentially Watson.The play is the first extant example of English domestic tragedy, which would subsequently flourish throughout Elizabeth and Jamesian drama and be rekindled in the 1700s... Read Arden of Faversham Summary


Publication year 2007Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Life/Time: Mortality & DeathTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, American Literature

August: Osage County by American playwright Tracy Letts premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in June 2007 and debuted on Broadway in December of the same year. When Beverly, the Weston family patriarch, goes missing, a web of estranged family members travel home to gather around his vitriolic spouse, Violet. The play is semi-autobiographical, and Letts explores themes of addiction, suicide, and generational trauma from his own childhood in Oklahoma. In 2008, August: Osage County won... Read August: Osage County Summary


Publication year 1955Genre Play, FictionThemes Society: Immigration, Identity: Masculinity, Society: Community, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & BetrayalTags Play: Drama, Play: Tragedy, Drama / Tragedy

A View from the Bridge is a two-act play by American playwright Arthur Miller. Originally staged as a one-act on Broadway in 1955, Miller expanded the play to two acts and re-debuted the final version in London in 1956. Ten major revivals have been staged in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, London, and Manchester since then. The play has received drama awards, including multiple Tonys, and has been adapted as feature films, TV movies, and... Read A View from the Bridge Summary


Publication year 1959Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Relationships: Friendship, Values/Ideas: Power & GreedTags Historical Fiction, Play: Tragedy, Religion / Spirituality, History: European, Politics / Government, French Literature, Modernism

Becket or The Honor of God is a 1959 play by the French dramatist Jean Anouilh. It portrays a fictionalized version of the conflict that took place between King Henry II of England and the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in the 12th century. The English translation of the play premiered on Broadway in 1960 to great acclaim and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1964.The central conflict of Becket, which ended in... Read Becket Summary


Publication year 1920Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Relationships: Siblings, Values/Ideas: FateTags American Literature, Play: Tragedy

Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon is a play that centers on the disaster that befalls two brothers when they choose to fight against their own natures. Realizing that they both love the same woman, each brother ends up pursuing the dream of the other with dire consequences.Written in 1918, Beyond the Horizon was O’Neill’s first full-length work to be produced, although it wasn’t published and first performed until 1920, the same year that it won... Read Beyond the Horizon Summary


Publication year 1932Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Relationships: MarriageTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Drama, Latin American Literature, Drama / Tragedy, Trauma / Abuse / Violence

Blood Wedding, a Spanish rural tragedy, was written by Federico Garcia Lorca in 1932 while he was director of the travelling theater company Teatro Universitario La Barraca. The play was first performed at Teatro Beatriz in Madrid in 1933 under the title Bodas de Sangre. It ran briefly in America on Broadway in 1935, where it was retitled Bitter Oleander. It was not well received; the passions and folkloric culture in the play were too... Read Blood Wedding Summary


Publication year 1975Genre Play, FictionThemes Society: Colonialism, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Values/Ideas: Win & Lose, Emotions/Behavior: Regret, Relationships: Fathers, Relationships: Daughters & SonsTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Drama, African Literature, Colonialism / Postcolonialism, WWII / World War II

Premiering in 1975, Death and the King’s Horseman is a play written by Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. The play is set in Oyo, Nigeria, during World War II and tells the story of Elesin Oba, the titular king’s horseman who must die by ritual suicide after the Yoruba king dies. The colonial government stops Elesin’s suicide, but the text also suggests that Elesin, a robust man full of life, might not have fulfilled his duty even... Read Death and the King's Horseman Summary


Publication year 1949Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Fathers, Identity: Masculinity, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & BetrayalTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Drama, Modern Classic Fiction, American Literature

Death of a Salesman is a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller and first performed on Broadway in 1949. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play, it is considered by critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The cynical play follows the final hours of a mentally unstable salesman at the end of his career who fails to attain the American Dream... Read Death of a Salesman Summary


Publication year 1589Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Life/Time: Mortality & DeathTags Classic Fiction, Elizabethan Era, Play: Tragedy

In the play Doctor Faustus, an ambitious scholar sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Written by Christopher Marlowe, the work was first produced in 1592 in London, where it caused a sensation, influenced Shakespeare’s plays, and launched a cottage industry in books, music, and other arts about the man who risked eternal damnation for the chance to control reality.Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England, in 1564 and died... Read Doctor Faustus Summary


Publication year 450Genre Play, FictionThemes Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Values/Ideas: Fate, Relationships: Siblings, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Natural World: Appearance & RealityTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Grief / Death, Ancient Greece

Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Relationships: Siblings, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & AngerTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece, Classical Period, Trauma / Abuse / Violence

Publication year 1957Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Relationships: Family, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Life/Time: The Future, Emotions/Behavior: RegretTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, Irish Literature, Absurdism

Endgame is a one-act, absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, first performed in 1957. The post-apocalyptic play portrays the farcical, tragic existence of four character who are caught in an unfulfilling routine. Beckett regarded the play as one of his greatest achievements. It has been adapted as an opera and as a short film.This guide uses the 2009 Faber and Faber edition. Plot SummaryThe curtain rises on a nearly bare stage: a room in Hamm’s home... Read Endgame Summary


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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Publication year 1829Genre Play, FictionThemes Life/Time: Mortality & DeathTags Classic Fiction, Play: Tragedy

Faust, Part One is the first part of a two-part dramatic poem written by 18th-century German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Based loosely on the 16th-century legend of Faust, Faust, Part One was first published in 1808 and first performed onstage in its entirety in 1829. (Faust, Part Two was later published in 1832.) It is largely told in rhyming verse, except for Scene 26, which is written in prose. This study guide is based... Read Faust Summary


Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Society: War, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & AngerTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece, Classical Period, Grief / Death, History: European, Trauma / Abuse / Violence

Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Society: War, Values/Ideas: Fate, Natural World: Appearance & RealityTags Classic Fiction, Mythology, Play: Tragedy

Publication year -416Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Fathers, Relationships: Friendship, Emotions/Behavior: courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece, Classical Period

Publication year 428Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Identity: Sexuality, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Emotions/Behavior: LoveTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece, Classical Period

Hippolytus is a tragedy by Euripides, originally produced in Athens at the City Dionysia of 428 BCE. The tetralogy to which Hippolytus belonged earned Euripides the first prize that year. According to ancient authorities, this was Euripides’s second attempt at a play on the myth of Hippolytus, his earlier play having apparently horrified contemporary Athenians with its allegedly sensational depiction of Phaedra. Euripides’s original Hippolytus no longer survives, but the revised play quickly came to... Read Hippolytus Summary


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Ed. John C. Gilbert, Euripides
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Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Identity: Gender, Society: NationTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Classic Fiction

Publication year 1599Genre Play, FictionTags Classic Fiction, Elizabethan Era, British Literature, Play: Tragedy, Play: Historical

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a history play and tragedy written by William Shakespeare and first performed in 1599. The play dramatizes the events surrounding the 44 BC assassination of Julius Caesar, a Roman general and statesman. Shakespeare’s main source material for the play was Plutarch’s Lives, a series of biographies of famous men, published in the second century, and translated into English by Thomas North in 1579. Shakespeare sometimes deviated from his source... Read Julius Caesar Summary


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Pierre Corneille
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Publication year 1636Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, Arts / Culture, French Literature

Le Cid is a five-act tragicomic play by Pierre Corneille, first performed in 1636 at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris. The plot is based on the Spanish play Las mocedadas del Cid by Guillén de Castro, which itself is based on the legend of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (1043-1099), a Castilian knight and Spanish national hero whose title “El Cid” is derived from the Arabic word for lord, sayyid. Corneille (1606-1684) is considered one... Read Le Cid Summary


Publication year 1956Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Society: Community, Relationships: Siblings, Life/Time: MidlifeTags Play: Drama, Play: Tragedy, Auto/Biographical Fiction, Addiction / Substance Abuse

Long Day’s Journey into Night is widely considered Eugene O’Neill’s best play. It was published posthumously under the pseudonym Tyrone and is an autobiographical work about O’Neill’s family. The play was originally published in 1956 with a first showing in Sweden that same year. The play has been adapted into film several times, including productions in 1962 and 1996, as well as television adaptations in 1973, 1982, and 1987. O’Neill was awarded the Nobel Prize... Read Long Day's Journey Into Night Summary


Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Relationships: MarriageTags Mythology, Play: Tragedy, Classic Fiction, Ancient Greece

Medea is a tragic play written by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was composed in 431 BCE as Euripides’s entry for the Dionysia, an important religious festival and theatrical competition in the city of Athens. Though Medea placed third in the competition that year, it has since become one of Euripides’s most popular works, enjoying special attention for its nuanced treatment of revenge and domestic strife and for the complexity of its lead character... Read Medea Summary


Publication year 49Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Identity: Femininity, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & BetrayalTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Rome

Publication year 60Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Society: Politics & Government, Values/Ideas: FateTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology

Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: FateTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Philosophy, Religion / Spirituality, Ancient Greece, Classic Fiction

Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex, first performed in the early-to-mid 400s BCE, is one of the most famous and influential tragedies left to us from the ancient Greek tradition. Based on the myth of Oedipus, whose cursed fate was to marry his mother and kill his father, the play explores themes of destiny, free will, and literal and metaphoric vision and blindness. This guide uses the 1984 Penguin edition of The Three Theban Plays, translated by... Read Oedipus Rex Summary


Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Fate, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Values/Ideas: Power & GreedTags Classic Fiction, Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece

Written in 458 BC by Greek playwright Aeschylus, The Oresteia is a trilogy of plays that includes Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, as well as the lost satyr play, Proteus. The plays of The Oresteia are classic tragedies, a dramatic genre focused on the piteous and cathartic downfall of great heroes. The plays were written to be performed at the City Dionysia festival which celebrated Dionysus, god of wine and theater. The festival was... Read Oresteia Summary


Publication year 409Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Emotions/Behavior: RevengeTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Ancient Greece, Drama / Tragedy, Play: Drama

Publication year 54Genre Play, FictionTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Classical Period, Ancient Rome, Drama / Tragedy, Play: Drama

Phaedra is one of the 10 surviving Roman tragedies attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca. It was probably composed in the first half of the first century CE, during the time when the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was in power in Rome. Considered one of Seneca’s most influential plays, Phaedra tells the story of Phaedra’s disastrous and unrequited passion for her stepson Hippolytus, loosely drawing on Euripides’s much earlier Greek tragedy, Hippolytus. The play explores themes such as... Read Phaedra Summary


Publication year 1677Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Relationships: Daughters & SonsTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Drama, Mythology, French Literature, Neoclassical

Publication year -1Genre Play, FictionThemes Relationships: FriendshipTags Mythology, Play: Tragedy, Ancient Greece

Philoctetes is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles, which was first performed in ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War in 409 BC. It was performed at the ancient Greek festival of City Dionysia, where it was awarded first prize. Philoctetes takes place during the final year of the Trojan War and explores themes of friendship, trauma, deception versus morality, fate, and the individual versus the collective. This study guide uses the translation of Sophocles’ play... Read Philoctetes Summary


Publication year 1597Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Order & Chaos, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Society: Politics & Government, Self DiscoveryTags Play: Historical, British Literature, Play: Tragedy, Classic Fiction

The Tragedy of King Richard II is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably first performed in 1595, and published in 1597. The play covers the last two years of Richard II’s life, from 1398 to 1400, during which he was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV in 1399. The play explores Richard’s growing unpopularity and ineffective leadership, leading to his overthrow by Bolingbroke, who not only has a taste for power... Read Richard II Summary


Publication year 1904Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Values/Ideas: Fate, Emotions/Behavior: Apathy, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Natural World: Environment, Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: Siblings, Society: NationTags Play: Tragedy, Irish Literature

Riders to the Sea (1904) is a one-act Irish play by John Millington Synge, originally performed in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The play portrays the events of one day in the cottage of a low-income family living on Inishmaan, one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, as they cope with the loss of male relatives to the rough waters between the islands and mainland Ireland. This short play incorporates themes... Read Riders to the Sea Summary


Publication year 1966Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Fate, Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Values/Ideas: Order & ChaosTags Play: Comedy / Satire, Play: Tragedy, British Literature, Absurdism

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a three-act play by the English playwright Tom Stoppard. It is an existentialist, absurdist satire featuring characters and events from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead enjoyed critical success, winning The New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Award for Best Play and four Tony Awards in 1968. Since then, the play has been adapted into several radio plays and a... Read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary


Publication year 1920Genre Play, FictionThemes Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Values/Ideas: Science & TechnologyTags Science-Fiction / Dystopian Fiction, Play: Drama, Technology, Play: Tragedy, Drama / Tragedy

R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is a play by Karel Čapek. Čapek was a Czech writer who produced work in many genres, including journalism, essays, plays, short stories, novels, and translations of French poetry. R.U.R. premiered in 1921 at Prague’s National Theater. It is based on a short story by Karel Čapek and his brother Josef Čapek called “The System,” which was published in 1908. Čapek categorized R.U.R. as a collective drama, but it is generally... Read R.U.R. Summary


Publication year 1923Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Society: Politics & Government, Emotions/Behavior: courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Identity: Gender, Identity: Mental HealthTags Play: Drama, Play: Tragedy, Play: Historical, Irish Literature, Post-War Era

Saint Joan is a play by playwright George Bernard Shaw that premiered in 1923. The play tells the story of the 15th-century French historical figure Joan of Arc, who was formally canonized as a catholic saint in 1920. The play was a critical success, and, shortly after its premiere, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. Shaw includes a lengthy preface before the script of the play where he compares the medieval... Read Saint Joan Summary


Publication year 1891Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Beauty, Identity: Sexuality, Values/Ideas: Religion & SpiritualityTags Play: Tragedy, Love / Sexuality, Irish Literature, Victorian Period

Publication year 1995Genre Play, FictionThemes Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Identity: Race, Identity: MasculinityTags Play: Drama, Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, Race / Racism, African American Literature

Seven Guitars, which premiered in 1995 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and transferred to Broadway in 1996, is the seventh play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle. This series, consisting of ten plays that are each set in a different decade of the 20th century, explore the lives of African Americans during each era. With the exclusion Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), which takes place in 1920s Chicago... Read Seven Guitars Summary


Publication year 405Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Society: Community, Values/Ideas: Order & ChaosTags Play: Tragedy, Mythology, Classic Fiction

The Bacchae is an ancient Athenian tragedy by Euripides. The play is generally believed to have been staged (with Iphigenia at Aulis and another play) in 405 BCE by the poet’s son after his father’s death in 407-6 and to have won first prize. The production took place in Athens at the City Dionysia, a festival in honor of Dionysus. Set in Thebes, the play depicts Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) returning to his mother’s... Read The Bacchae Summary


Publication year 1622Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Emotions/Behavior: LoveTags Play: Tragedy, British Literature, Harlem Renaissance

The Changeling is a Jacobean tragicomedy written in collaboration between established playwrights Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It was first performed in 1622 and published in 1653. The play is adapted from John Reynolds’s 1621 story collection titled The Triumphs of Gods Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of Willful and Premeditated Murther.The play has two plots: a tragic main plot and a comedic subplot. Scholars believe Middleton wrote the majority of the main... Read The Changeling Summary


Publication year 1904Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Life/Time: The Past, Society: ClassTags Play: Tragedy, Play: Comedy / Satire, Russian Literature

Written in 1903 and first performed in 1904, The Cherry Orchard is the final work by acclaimed Russian playwright and author Anton Chekhov. Considered a classic of modern theater, the play tells the story of Lubov Andreyevna Ranevsky, an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns home after spending five years in Paris. She discovers that her family’s estate and renowned cherry orchard must be sold to cover debts. The enterprising merchant Lopakhin offers Lubov a plan to save the... Read The Cherry Orchard Summary


Publication year 1614Genre Play, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Relationships: Marriage, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Society: Class, Identity: FemininityTags Play: Tragedy, Jacobean Era, Class

The Duchess of Malfi, originally published as The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy, is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by John Webster. Webster also wrote the revenge tragedy The White Devil and frequently collaborated with other playwrights working for the King’s Men in London. It was written in 1613 and performed to a private audience at Blackfriars Theatre a year later. That same year it was also performed to a general audience at the... Read The Duchess of Malfi Summary


Publication year 1920Genre Play, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Identity: Race, Society: ColonialismTags Play: Tragedy, Classic Fiction, Race / Racism, Trauma / Abuse / Violence