The Designated Mourner


Wallace Shawn - 1996
    The three characters are the eponymous designated mourner, Jack; his wife, Judy; and Judy's erudite father, Howard. Despite a passionate bond with her father, Judy is drawn to Jack, whose taste in cultural forms follows a disturbing path. When Jack abandons both Judy and Howard, he continues his riveting societal free-fall into a world of gleeful savagery. Other works by Wallace Shawn are "A Thought in Three Parts," "Our Late Night," "Marie and Bruce," "My Dinner With Andre" (co-written with Andre Gregory), "Aunt Dan and Lemon," and "The Fever."

Sleuth


Anthony Shaffer - 1970
    It is a dramatic study of sexual conflict and jealousy between an older and a younger man; as well as a subtle psychological portrait of an inadequate and sexually-obsessed middle-aged man.Sleuth was filmed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in the leading roles, and this edition is fully illustrated with stills from the film, for which Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay.Anthony Shaffer has written several television and stage plays, including the West End success Murderer (also available from arion Boyars Publishers). He has also written many screenplays, including Play with a Gypsy, Hitchcock's Frenzy, The Wicker Man, and the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.

As Bees in Honey Drown


Douglas Carter Beane - 1998
    Book annotation not available for this title.

The Admirable Crichton


J.M. Barrie - 1902
    While there, they are willing slaves to their former butler, but on return to civilization, the positions are shifted.

Electra


Euripides
    Under the general editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on the text, full stage directions, and a glossary of the mythical and geographical references in the plays. This vital translation of Euripides' Electra recreates the prize-winning excitement of the original play. Electra, obsessed by dreams of avenging her father's murder, impatiently awaits the return of her exiled brother Orestes. When he arrives, the play mounts toward its first climax, a tender recognition scene. From that moment on, Electra uses Orestes as her instrument of vengeance. They kill their mother's husband, then their mother herself--and only afterward see the evil inherent in these seemingly just acts. But in his usual fashion, Euripides has imbued myth with the reality of human experience, counterposing suspense and horror with comic realism and down-to-earth comments on life.

In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play


Sarah Ruhl - 2010
    Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat 'hysterical' women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating "hysteria" in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter-and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new "hysterical" patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.This laugh out loud, provocative and touching play premiered at Berkely Rep and subsequently marked Sarah Ruhl's Broadway debut opening at the Lyceum Theatre on November 19th, 2009.

Fires in the Mirror


Anna Deavere Smith - 1993
    Derived from interviews with a wide range of  people who experienced or observed New York's 1991  Crown Heights racial riots, Fires In The  Mirror is as distinguished a work of  commentary on current Black-White tensions as it is a  work of drama.

The Persians


Aeschylus
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The Cenci


Percy Bysshe Shelley - 1819
    It was inspired by a real Italian family, the Cencis (especially Beatrice Cenci). Due to its theme of incest the play was considered unperformable in its day, and it was not performed in London until 1922. Later it was included in the Harvard Classics as one of the most important and representative works of the western canon

Four Comedies


Plautus
    In fact, Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and Moliere's the Miser are two subsequent classics directly based on Plautine originals. Plautus himself borrowed from the Greeks, but his jokes, rapid dialogue, bawdy humor, and irreverent characterizations are the original work of an undisputed genius. The comedies printed here show him at his best, and Professor Segal's translations keep their fast, rollicking pace intact, making these the most readable and actable versions available. This volume includes, The Braggart Soldier, e Brothers Menaechmus, The Haunted House, and The Pot of Gold.

The Flick


Annie Baker - 2014
    With keen insight and a ceaseless attention to detail, The Flick pays tribute to the power of movies and paints a heartbreaking portrait of three characters and their working lives. A critical hit when it premiered Off-Broadway, this comedy, by one of the country's most produced and highly regarded young playwrights, was awarded the coveted 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, an Obie Award for Playwriting and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.