Showing titles in Drama

The Noh theatre of Japan was popularized towards the end of the 14th century. It was heavily influenced by Buddhism in philosophy and style, and was made up of dances performed at Shinto shrines to honor spirits and gods and old lyric poetry. Around the same time Shakespeare's Hamlet was being performed in London, Noh was integral to official ceremonies at Kyoto, and young nobles and princes were encouraged to attend and perform. This is a collection of four short plays from the Noh theatres of Japan - Hagoromo, Kumasaka, Kagekiyo, and Nishigiki.

An adaptation of William Shakespeare's 1603-1604 play Measure for Measure adapted and in plain English to a 20-minute production by Charlie Creed. The original was first published in the First Folio in 1623. It was originally classified as a comedy, though is now considered more of a problem play. The play is set in Vienna and focuses on the themes of relationships, integrity, and legal complications. This is a full cast, abridged production of the play in plain English.

Star of stage, film, and television Alan Cumming delivers a virtuoso performance playing every role in the National Theatre of Scotland's bold presentation of Shakespeare's chilling tale of desire, ambition, and the supernatural. This radical reimagining of one of Shakespeare's most deeply psychological plays is set in a psychiatric unit in which Cumming is the lone patient. Channeling the story of Macbeth, he is inhabited in turn by each of the characters of the drama, including some of Shakespeare's most complex and troubled creations.

An easy-going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle aunts have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar.

Exiles is the only play written by James Joyce. It draws material from "The Dead", the final story in his famous short stories collection, Dubliners. It centers around four individuals - Richard, Robert, Bertha, and Beatrice - and the complex romantic entanglements between them as tensions rise and relationships are tested.

Five works in one collection. This audiobook of his treasured poetry collection walks you through a time when the American Experiment came to a new maturity; when the Transcendentalist Movement forever changed life and poetry.

A modern adaptation of The Oresteia of Aeschylus, the only surviving ancient Athenian trilogy. Across three plays, Greece's first major playwright tells the story of the cursed House of Atreus, where the bloody sins of the family's ancestors are visited upon four succeeding generations. After a series of horrific past crimes by his ancestors, Orestes is driven to matricide and for that is relentlessly pursued by the Furies, underworld demons intent on revenging the spirit of his mother.

Faust is a tragic play in two parts that reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant but disillusioned scholar who makes a deal with the devil. it is widely considered to be Goethe's masterpiece and the greatest work of German literature. The novel Elective Affinities is the story of Eduard and Charlotte, an aristocratic couple enjoying an idyllic but rather dull life on their rural estate. They invite the Captain, Eduard's childhood friend, and Ottilie, the orphaned niece of Charlotte, to live with them, with tragic results.

“Todo o mundo é um teatro”, escreveu William Shakespeare, “e homens e mulheres não passam de meros atores”. No novo audiolivro de Leandro Karnal, atores-ouvintes são convidados a dar um passeio pela própria consciência: a jornada de aprender com quem mais tem a ensinar no teatro do mundo - o criador de Hamlet. O que aprendi com Hamlet, dessa forma, revela os ensinamentos deixados pela principal peça de William Shakespeare numa combinação entre a experiência de um homem do século XVI e outro do século XXI.

One fateful winter evening, Cyprus Reyner - a young Whisper - befriends Victoria d'Audrieu through a shared desire to learn more of the Kingdom of Rhoryn. After years of friendship and perseverance, they develop a bond that withstands the test of time. But when Jeremi Terryn comes to their home city of Lorelyn, their relationship will be tested in ways they never thought possible. Cyprus must make the most important decision of his life; let the woman he loves live her dreams, or beg her to stay by his side.

Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Adapted in English and for the stage by David Serero. This adaptation is the most faithful to the original French text and reduced to an hour and 30 minutes and for 10 actors. This is the full script from David Serero's off-Broadway production and adaptation of 2018, in which he starred as Cyrano with critical acclaim.

Cathos y Madelon, hija y sobrina del burgués Gorgibus, intentan constantemente imitar un lenguaje que consideran elegante y refinado, y lo que hacen realmente es caer en la más absoluta ridiculez. Gorgibus quiere casarlas a toda costa con dos jóvenes de buena familia parisina: La Grange y Du Croisy, pero ellas les rechazan, porque dicen "no son finos ni tienen sentmientos elegantes" Los jóvenes despechados, deciden vengarse de las "preciosas ridículas".

Las circunstancias pero especialmente la ambición, la envidia y el asesinato van hacer que Hamlet y Ofelia, la pareja de enamorados que con sus respectivas familias tenían derecho a ser felices, no lo puedan ser, gestándose el desenlace más dramático imaginable. Hamlet simplemente no puede creerse que su madre, tan sólo dos meses después de la muerte de su padre, se case con su tío Claudio.

According to George Bernard Shaw, Joan of Arc was in fact one of the first Protestant martyrs. She was one of the first apostles of nationalism, and the first French practitioner of Napoleonic realism in warfare. She also refused to accept the specific woman's lot, and dressed and fought and lived as men did. Shaw's exploration of the story of this ingenuous and eponymous heroine is set in six scenes and an epilogue, which takes place in 1456, when the church cleared Joan of the charge of heresy and condemned her accusers of corruption.

The Lower Depths, also titled At the Bottom, is a 1902 play by the Russian author and playwright Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). This work portrays a group of wretched, impoverished outcasts living in a shelter near the Volga River. They play cards and tell stories, and are briefly uplifted by a new resident called Luca who gives them hope. When he goes off, the illusion of hope collapses, and the result is murder and suicide.

Fresh off his victory at The Battle of Lodi, Napoleon is planning to enjoy his lunch when a lieutenant arrives with the bad news that the dispatches he had been carrying were stolen. Infuriated, Napoleon threatens him with being court-martialed unless he can recover them. A woman appears who claims to know about the theft. Unconvinced of her story, Napoleon and the woman enter into a battle of wits in true Shaw style. Will the conqueror of worlds end up conquered by a woman?

Jim of the Hills is a verse novel written by celebrated Australian poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). It is narrated by shy, hard-working Jim, who works for a sawmill in the Australian bush. With characteristic pathos and wit, the story unfolds in twists and turns as Jim encounters Ben Murray, the Widow, Old Bob Blair, and the angel with the sunlit hair. This Australian classic, originally published in 1919, is a true delight.

Susan Keating Glaspell (1876 - 1948) was a novelist, playwright, journalist and actress. The Verge reflects Glaspell's observation of the way in which Victorian society left some women feeling trapped in roles for which they were unsuited. The story is about Claire, a woman who lives her life on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Trying to create a new type of plant, Claire spends most of her time in the greenhouse.

Christopher Marlowe wrote this spectacularly subversive play in 1589/1590. The setting is the island of Malta as a bone of contention between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in their struggle for supremacy in the Mediterranean. The ghost of Machiavelli appropriately introduces this tale of murder and mayhem which unfolds in flamboyant episodes of blackmail, betrayal, revenge, scheming, theft, and poisoning on a breathtaking scale.

King Claudius, when a young man, wrote a five-act tragedy which was damned, and all reference to it forbidden under penalty of death. The King has a son - Hamlet - whose tendency to soliloquize has so alarmed his mother, Queen Gertrude, that she has sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to devise some Court revels for his entertainment. Rosencrantz is a former lover of Ophelia, to whom Hamlet is betrothed, and they lay their heads together to devise a plan by which Hamlet may be put out of the way. Some Court theatricals are in preparation.