First performed in 1921 with Romans calling out ‘Madhouse!’ from the audience, “Six Characters in Search of an Author” has remained the most famous and innovative of Pirandello’s plays. Often labeled a satirical tragicomedy, this play initiated the anti-illusionism movement of the early twentieth century, rejecting realism in favor of a more symbolic, dreamlike quality. When an acting company’s rehearsal is interrupted by six family members who wish their life story to be enacted, the result is...
First performed in 1921 with Romans calling out 'Madhouse!' from the audience, «Six Characters in Search of an Author» has remained the most famous and innovative of Pirandello's plays. Often labeled a satirical tragicomedy, this play initiated the anti-illusionism movement of the early twentieth century, rejecting realism in favor of a more symbolic, dreamlike quality. When an acting company's rehearsal is interrupted by six family members who wish their life story to be...
Юкио Мисима – самый знаменитый и читаемый в мире японский писатель. Прославился он в равной степени как своими произведениями во всех мыслимых жанрах (романы, пьесы, рассказы, эссе), так и экстравагантным стилем жизни и смерти (харакири после неудачной попытки монархического переворота). В настоящее издание вошли две пьесы – «Маркиза де Сад» и «Мой друг Гитлер», эссе «Солнце и сталь» и знаменитая новелла «Патриотизм», которая, по словам Мисимы, является «рассказом о подлинном счастье». Все...
Семейная жизнь – спектакль. У кого-то – оперетта, у кого-то – драма абсурда. А если речь идет о знаменитостях, то «билеты» в этот «театр» раскупают на годы вперед… Когда герой пьесы «Спектакль» – известный летчик – внезапно погибает, его личная жизнь становится предметом интриг и домыслов. Жена, любовница, кого из них он любил больше и любил ли вообще? Блистательная драматургическая эскапада в духе Сомерсета Моэма заставит вас улыбнуться и в очередной раз вспомнить слова Шекспира о том, что не...
A play in two acts about Emma Goldman, American Anarchist. In this play, historian and playwright Howard Zinn dramatizes the life of Emma Goldman, the anarchist, feminist, and free-spirited thinker<br>who was exiled from the United States because of her outspoken views, including her opposition to WWI. With his wit and ability to illuminate history from below, Zinn reveals the life of this remarkable woman.
Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere, stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. His many great plays include «The School for Husbands» and «The School for Wives,» «The Misanthrope» and «The Hypocrite» (Tartuffe), «The Miser» and «The Hypochondriac,» «The Learned Ladies,» «The Doctor in Spite of Himself,» «The Citizen Turned Gentleman,» and many others, in which he exposed mercilessly one after another the vices and foibles of the day. His characteristic...
Renowned for his satirical works, Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, 1622–1673) delighted in lampooning the social pretensions and conceits of 17th-century French society. In this 1664 verse comedy with serious overtones, Tartuffe, a penniless scoundrel and religious poseur, is invited by a gullible benefactor to live in his home.Imposing a rigidly puritanical regimen on the formerly happy household, Tartuffe wreaks havoc among family members. He breaks off the daughter's...
Aristophanes's «The Birds» is one of the great dramatic comedies from all of classical antiquity. It is the story of Euelpides and Pisthetaerus, two old Athenians, who are disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their countrymen, and resolve upon quitting Attica. Having heard of the fame of Epops (the hoopoe), sometime called Tereus, and now King of the Birds, they determine, under the direction of a raven and a jackdaw, to seek from him and his subject birds a city...
Written in 1903, “The Cherry Orchard” was Anton Chekhov’s final play, widely regarded as one of his greatest dramatic accomplishments. It is a story set during the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of an emergent middle class in Russian society at the turn of the 20th Century. Madame Ranevsky and her daughters have returned to their family estate, including its famous cherry orchard, to oversee the auction of the estate in order to pay the mortgage. Madame Ranevsky is paralyzed by the...