The Death of Wallenstein (play)
Автор:
Schiller FriedrichЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-28Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
81Драматургия стр.5
The Duchess of Malfi
Автор:
John WebsterЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
27
Description
John Webster was a later contemporary of Shakespeare, and The Duchess of Malfi, Webster’s best known play, is considered among the best of the period. It appears to have been first performed in 1612–13 at the Blackfriars before moving on to the larger and more famous Globe Theatre, and was later published in 1623.
The play is loosely based on a real Duchess of Amalfi, a widow who marries beneath her station. On learning of this, her brothers become enraged and vow their revenge. Soon the intrigue, deceit, and murders begin. Marked by the period’s love of spectacular violence, each character exacts his...
The First Man
Автор:
O'Neill EugeneЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-27Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
26
The Hairy Ape
Автор:
Eugene O’NeillЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
17
Description
Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape isn’t one of his best-known works, but it has gained popularity as an exploration of early American society. It was first produced in 1922 by the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts, embracing expressionism in its set design and staging, before moving on to Broadway, where it faced resistance from local and federal governments due to its radical views.
The play examines the existential crisis of the protagonist, a brutish stoker named Yank, who begins the play secure in his role as the leader of firemen on an Atlantic ocean liner. But when confronted by the disdain of an upper-class passenger who calls him a “filthy beast,” he...
The Importance of Being Earnest
Автор:
Oscar WildeДата добавления:
2022-03-19Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
21
Description
The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde’s most popular play today, enduring thanks to its easy humor, witty dialog, and clever satire. It was also one of his more successful plays, despite its first run being prematurely ended after only 86 performances. The main characters pretend to be other people in order to escape social obligations, with the resulting confusion of identities driving the plot and the humor behind it.
Earnest also holds the sad distinction of being Wilde’s last published play. A feud with an aristocrat whose son was Wilde’s lover led to a court case revealing Wilde as a homosexual—a crime in those days, and punishable by imprisonment...
The Jew of Malta
Автор:
Christopher MarloweЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-17Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
21
Description
Christopher Marlowe wrote The Jew of Malta at the height of his career, and it remained popular until England’s theaters were closed by Parliament in 1642. Many have critiqued it for its portrayal of Elizabethan antisemitism, but others argue that Marlowe criticizes Judaism, Islam, and Christianity equally for their hypocrisy. This antisemitism debate continues on to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, which was written about ten years later and which some consider to be directly influenced by The Jew of Malta.
The play focuses on a wealthy Jewish merchant named Barabas who lives...
The Maid of Orleans (play)
Автор:
Schiller FriedrichЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-28Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
63
The Merchant of Venice
Автор:
William ShakespeareДата добавления:
2022-03-16Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
22
Description
The young venetian noble Bassanio seeks to woo the beautiful heiress Portia of Belmont. He turns to his friend, a merchant named Antonio, who agrees to help him financially. They go to a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who agrees to lend the money—but because of their mutual animosity, Shylock demands “A pound of flesh” from Antonio as collateral.
Bassanio succeeds in winning Portia’s hand. Meanwhile, Antonio’s ships are reported lost at sea, and he defaults on the loan. Bassanio rushes back to Venice to help his benefactor where everything comes to a head in Court.
This Standard Ebooks production is based on William George Clark and William Aldis Wright’s 1887 Victoria edition, which is taken from the Globe...
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Автор:
William ShakespeareЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
25
Description
First published in 1602 by William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor features the popular figure Sir John Falstaff, who first appeared in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2. Some speculate that Merry Wives was written at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I, who wanted to see Falstaff in love; and that Shakespeare was forced to rush its creation as a result, and so it remains one of Shakespeare’s lesser-regarded plays.
The play revolves around two intertwined plots: the adventures of the rogue Falstaff who plans to seduce several local wives, and the story of young Anne Page who is being wooed by prominent citizens while she has her sights set on...
The Piccolomini (play)
Автор:
Schiller FriedrichЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-28Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
52
The Playboy of the Western World
Автор:
J. M. SyngeЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
22
Description
A young man stumbles into a rural public house in western Ireland claiming to be on the run after having killed his father. He immediately becomes a source of awe and an object of adoration, and even love. But what happens when the inhabitants of this tiny village find out all is not as the stranger claims?
J. M. Synge first presented The Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on the 26th of January, 1907. The performance immediately offended Irish nationalists by seemingly insulting the Irish people and language, and the general public, by being an offense against moral order. Before it was even finished, it was disrupted by a riot that soon...
The Power of Darkness
Автор:
Leo TolstoyЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-17Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
28
Description
The Power of Darkness is a five-act drama that follows the downfall of the peasants Anísya and Nikíta as they succumb to a series of sordid temptations, from adultery and drunkenness to outright murder. Written in 1886 but suppressed by censors until 1902, the play is a realist portrayal of some of the darkest elements of Russian peasant life. Similar to some other late Tolstoy works, like Resurrection, the play’s psychological exploration of human depravity is accompanied by a sharp social critique of the Russian Empire and its role in perpetuating poverty and ignorance among its lowest...
The Robbers
Автор:
Schiller FriedrichЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-28Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
37
The School for Scandal
Автор:
Richard Brinsley SheridanДата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
37
Description
One of the most celebrated English comedies of manners, Sheridan’s The School for Scandal was first produced in 1777 at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. It opened just a year after Sheridan succeeded the famous actor/manager David Garrick as manager and, after Garrick had read the play, he even volunteered to write the prologue—lending his much desired endorsement to the production. The School for Scandal was extremely well received by its audiences as well as by many contemporary critics.
The plot revolves around members of London’s Georgian society who delight in rumor and gossip and the infelicities and flaws of others. Although they draw...
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray
Автор:
Arthur W. PineroЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
24
Description
Arthur Pinero wrote The Second Mrs. Tanqueray in 1893 after penning several successful farces. Playing on the “woman with a past” plot that was popular in melodramas, Pinero steered it in a more serious direction, centering the play around the social consequences arising when Aubrey Tanqueray remarries in an attempt to redeem a woman with a questionable past.
The play’s structure is based on the principles of the “well-made play” popular throughout the 19th-century. But just as Wilde manipulated the conventions of the “well-made play” to produce a new form of comedy, so did Arthur Pinero manipulate it, forgoing the happy ending to produce an elevated form of...
The Storm
Автор:
Островский АлександрЖанр:
Драматургия;Серия:
3Дата добавления:
2013-11-17Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
36
The Taming of the Shrew
Автор:
William ShakespeareЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-17Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
22
Description
In the Italian city of Padua, a young gentleman named Lucentio comes to study at one of the city’s colleges. As is often the fate of men in Shakespeare’s plays, Lucentio falls in love at first sight. The object of his affection, Bianca, is the beautiful and docile daughter of a rich merchant. Her father, Baptista Minola, has declared that no one can marry Bianca until her older sister Katharina has been married first.
Katharina is the polar opposite of her sister: vicious, foul-tempered, sharp-tongued, and stubborn. Any man in her vicinity is at risk of receiving her brutal insults and physical attacks. It’s no surprise that no man wants to marry her—or that’s what...
The Tempest
Автор:
William ShakespeareЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
17
Description
The Tempest, thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone, begins with a storm which shipwrecks the king of Naples and his crew. We quickly learn that the tempest was not a natural occurence; it was created by Prospero, the usurped duke of Milan who is stranded on a nearby island, with the help of Ariel, a spirit in his service. The rest of the play explores the relationships between the shipwrecked crew, Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and a native of the island: a half human, half monster called Caliban.
Though this play is traditionally classified as a comedy, more modern scholarship, out of a desire to highlight the dramatic elements of some of...
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Автор:
Christopher MarloweЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-18Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
15
Description
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe’s classic interpretation of the Dr. Faustus legend, was first performed in London by the Admiral’s Men around 1592. It is believed to be the first dramatization of this classic tale wherein Faustus, a German scholar, trades his soul to Lucifer in return for magical powers and the command over the demon Mephistopheles. Faustus at first seeks to expand his knowledge of the universe, but soon finds that a deal with the devil brings little satisfaction. All too soon the contract expires, and Faustus is faced with the prospect of eternal damnation.
Two principal versions of this play exist, one...
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Автор:
William ShakespeareЖанр:
Драматургия;Дата добавления:
2022-03-17Язык книги:
EnglishКол-во страниц:
18
Description
Two close friends, Proteus and Valentine, are saying their goodbyes in the streets of Verona. Valentine plans to travel to Milan and discover the world, but Proteus wants to stay with Julia, a woman he loves. While in Milan, Valintine falls in love with the duke’s daughter, Sylvia, and plans to elope with her. Antonio, Proteus’ father, later orders his son to join Valentine in Milan. Before leaving, Proteus exchanges rings and vows of undying love with Julia. When Proteus enters the aristocratic courts of Milan, he instantly falls in love with Sylia and forgets all about Julia. The love triangle between Sylvia, Proteus, and Valentine will test the loyalty of friendship.
This Standard Ebooks production is based on William George...
