Зарубежная драматургия

Volpone, or, The Fox

Ben Jonson

Volpone, or, The Fox

Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. He worked shortly as an actor in «The Admiral's Men», but soon moved on to writing original plays for the troupe. Jonson's works are particularly recognizable because of his consistencies in style, intricacy of plot, characterization and setting. He focused on creating works that implemented elements of the realistic as well as the absurd. Jonson's most...

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The Wild Duck

Henrik Ibsen

The Wild Duck

Henrik Ibsen's 1884 drama, «The Wild Duck», is the story of Gregers Werle, an idealist who returns to his hometown after some absence. While there he begins to meddle in the affairs of the Ekdals, an odd family that have constructed a strange way of living by ignoring the skeletons in their respective closets. The Ekdals escape the reality of their existence by the construction of various delusional fantasies. Gregers, who believes that the pursuit of the ideal demands the exposition of...

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The Only Jealousy of Emer

W. B. Yeats

The Only Jealousy of Emer

William Butler Yeats was encouraged from a young age to pursue a life in the arts. He attended art school for a short while, but soon found that his talents and interest lay in poetry rather than painting. Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, Yeats discovered early in his literary career a fascination with Irish folklore and the occult. He felt an internal struggle with the contradictions he felt in his nature and in life, and spent much of his life seeking out a philosophical system to resolve...

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Electra and Other Plays

Euripides

Electra and Other Plays

In «Electra and Other Plays» we have a collection of five of the classical dramatist Euripides' best plays. In the title work «Electra», before the events of this play, the Greek general Agamemnon sacrificed a daughter to appease the gods and gain permission to sail for Troy. His wife Clytemnestra never forgave him, and upon his return she and her lover murder him. Euripides picks up the story with the children of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, the young Electra, who has been sent to live on a...

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Euripides

Eastward Ho

Ben Jonson

Eastward Ho

Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. Jonson's works are particularly recognizable because of his consistencies in style, intricacy of plot, characterization and setting. He focused on creating works that implemented elements of the realistic as well as the absurd. For a few years around the turn of the century, Jonson had participated in the War of the Theatres with his rival playwrights, John Marston...

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Four Plays by Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Four Plays by Eugene O'Neill

Contained within this volume are some of the best of O'Neill's early one-act plays, which foreshadowed the longer plays that have given this dramatist his most enduring fame. «Beyond the Horizon» was the first of O'Neill's three Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. It follows the disappointed dreams of two brothers on their family farm. «The Emperor Jones» is an expressionistic transformation of a black man named Brutus Jones. In fleeing from his rebelling subjects in the West...

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Eugene O'Neill

The Wasps

Aristophanes

The Wasps

This Comedy, which was produced by its author the year after the performance of 'The Clouds,' may be taken as in some sort a companion picture to that piece. Here the satire is directed against the passion of the Athenians for the excitement of the law-courts, as in the former its object was the new philosophy. And as the younger generation—the modern school of thought—were there the subjects of the caricature, so here the older citizens, who took their seats in court as jurymen day by...

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Aristophanes

A Tale of the Tub

Ben Jonson

A Tale of the Tub

Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. His career began in 1597 when he held a fixed engagement in the «Admiral's Men», and although he was unsuccessful as an actor, his literary talent was apparent and he began writing original plays for the troupe. Jonson had a knack for absurdity and hypocrisy, a trait that made him immensely popular in the 17th century Renaissance period. However, his reputation...

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Iphigenia

Jean Racine

Iphigenia

The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a...

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Jean Racine

The Magnetic Lady, or, Humours Reco...

Ben Jonson

The Magnetic Lady, or, Humours Reconciled

Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. His career began in 1597 when he held a fixed engagement in «The Admiral's Men», and although he was unsuccessful as an actor, his literary talent was apparent and he began writing original plays for the troupe. Although Jonson attained a long and thriving career, the majority of his major works for which he is revered were produced between 1605 and 1620. In his...

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On Baile's Strand

W. B. Yeats

On Baile's Strand

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. It can be difficult to characterize Yeats. He was a complicated man whose work reflected the internal struggle he felt between art and life. In 1899 Yeats helped found the Irish National Theatre Society, which later became the famous Abbey Theatre of Dublin. «On Baile's Strand» was first performed here in 1904, as part of one of the inaugural...

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The Importance of Being Earnest and...

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest and Five Other Plays

Witty playwright Oscar Wilde is most famous for his 1895 play «The Importance of Being Earnest.» The two protagonists use a false identity, Earnest, as a way to escape from unwanted social obligations. However, they encounter difficulties keeping up their personas as their social circles draw closer together. Wilde drew upon what he thought were outrageous social conventions of the Victorian Era and used satire to show the absurdity of its beliefs, like how marriage was more of a boring burden...

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Oscar Wilde

The League of Youth

Henrik Ibsen

The League of Youth

"The League of Youth" is Henrik Ibsen's comedic play which is the story of Stensgaard, a charismatic would-be politician, who forms the 'League of Youth' party and attempts to get elected. The character of Stensgaard is supposedly based on writer Bjornstjerne Bjornson, a contemporary of Ibsen and political opposition leader. Praised for its witty dialogue and cynical humor, «The League of Youth» was one of Ibsen's most popular 19th century plays.

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Iphigenia, Phaedra, Athaliah

Jean Racine

Iphigenia, Phaedra, Athaliah

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Jean Racine

The Feast at Solhoug

Henrik Ibsen

The Feast at Solhoug

Henrik Ibsen's «The Feast at Solhoug» is set at the annual feast to celebrate the wedding anniversary of Margit and Bengt Guateson. Knut Gesling, the King's sheriff, comes prior to the feast to ask for Margit's approval for marrying her sister, Signe. Knowing that Knut can be a brutal and violent man, Margit gives her permission on the condition that Knut can demonstrate he can be peaceful for a period of one year. In typical Ibsen fashion, anything but a peaceful outcome ensues....

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Lady Inger of Ostrat

Henrik Ibsen

Lady Inger of Ostrat

Set in 1528, «Lady Inger of Ostrat» is Henrik Ibsen's historical drama based on Lady Inger of Austraat, who was the wealthiest Norwegian land-owner of her era. Swedish protesters of Danish rule of Norway, which since the Union of Kalmar in 1397 has largely become a province of Denmark, approach Lady Inger for her support in an insurrection against the Danes. As the fate of the nation of Norway lies in the balance, great political and personal intrigue abounds in this classic Ibsen drama.

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Calvary

W. B. Yeats

Calvary

Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, William Butler Yeats discovered early in his literary career a fascination with Irish folklore and the occult. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Yeats produced a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry of Ireland's historical and legendary past. These writings helped secure for Yeats recognition as a leading proponent of Irish nationalism and Irish cultural independence. His close friend, Ezra Pound, exposed the playwright to the...

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