Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Drama

In the Greek legend, a sculptor, Pygmalion, created a statue of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with it. Later the goddess Aphrodite responded to his earnest prayers and brought the statue, named Galatea, to life. Shaw's Pygmalion is a fussy unmarried professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, who claims that he could train an uneducated person off the street to speak so that he or she could pass as a member of the aristocracy. His Galatea is Eliza Doolittle, who sells flowers at Covent Garden and whose father is a dissipated but cunning vagrant.

Christopher Marlowe's play about a man who sells his soul to the devil is not only one of the first of many works to explore this theme but also one of the most startling. Eschewing the usual division of the drama into acts, it presents the story of Faustus' fall in a series of apparently disconnected scenes. However, the integrity of the drama is maintained by the remorseless unraveling of Faustus' fortunes as he approaches his inevitable damnation.

Lady Susan is an epistolary novel by Jane Austen about a beautiful and manipulative widow scheming to arrange wealthy marriages for herself and her daughter. This book is the basis for the film Love & Friendship, written and directed by Whit Stillman, and starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny. This dramatized production is presented by the Online Stage.

Oedipus the King is the story of a man whose life is destroyed by his own good intentions. When a terrible secret from his past is brought to the light of day, the consequences are chilling - and ineluctable.

A Woman of No Importance takes place in a 24-hour period during a house party hosted by Lady Hunstanton at her country estate. The upper echelons of English society mix, mingle and flirt, including Lady Caroline Pontefract (who is on her fourth husband), the witty and ironic Mrs. Allonby and the dandyish Lord Illingworth. Wilde balances these worldly characters with a visiting young American woman, Hester Worsley.

Rosmersholm is a play surrounding the deep and intense political and cultural change in Norway in the middle of the 1880s, a period during which the traditional ruling class were forced to relinquish their right to impose their ideals on the rest of society. We follow Johannes Rosmer, a pastor who has resigned from his position; Rebecca West, a woman who sees Rosmer's potential and believes she can help him to realize his dream of creating a world of "happy, noble people"; and Headmaster Kroll, Rosmer's former best friend.

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.

In Oedipus at Colonus, the banished king, after years of wandering, accompanied by his faithful daughter Antigone, finds himself in Athens. Receiving a warm if guarded welcome from Theseus, King of Athens, he prepares to settle himself to spend his last days in peace. However, unwelcome visitors from his tortured past continue to haunt him until the very end.

The Cherry Orchard is Chekhov's final play, first performed in 1904 at the Moscow Art Theatre and directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. It takes place on the Ranevsky family's country estate, which boasts a large cherry orchard that is in bloom as the play opens. The family is gathering at the estate for a reunion but also to decide how to handle their debts, which have reached a crisis point.

Euripides (c. 480-406 B.C.E.) is the author of eighteen extant plays and many more only surviving in fragments. He is the youngest of the three great Athenian tragedians with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Hippolytus, bastard son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta, has sworn chaste allegiance to the goddess Artemis, thus severely offending the goddess Aphrodite by failing to revere her. Aphrodite swears revenge and promises that he will die before the day is done, taking with him Queen Phaedra, wife of Theseus.

Often considered to be Ibsen's most popular play in his lifetime, The League of Youth caused fighting in the streets, with conservatives claiming it was an attack on their party and liberals claiming it was an attack on theirs! A thought-provoking comedy that's sure to feel shockingly familiar. Unusually for Ibsen, this play has a lot of humour and a more-or-less happy ending.

America a Prophecy (1793) is the first book in Blake’s Continental Prophecies - the other two being Europe a Prophecy (1794) and The Song of Los (1795). The poem was engraved on 18 plates with illustrations by Blake, and survives in 14 known copies. Written during a time of great political and social upheaval, Blake uses his own complex invented mythology to explore the human need to resist tyranny. His verse is rich in metaphor, powerful, and apocalyptic in scope.

Oliver Twist is the well-loved tale of an orphan, who starts life in a workhouse and finds himself embroiled in London's criminal underworld, before being saved by a kind gentleman who knows something of his surprising family history. A satire and social commentary as well as a page-turning yarn, full of grit, wit, and some of the most memorable characters in English Literature. The second published serialised novel by Charles Dickens, The British Library remarks that "it has proven to be one of the best-loved novels in the history of literature".

Passion and intrigue among the upper classes form the basis of Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's first successful play, which displays his trademark wit and wisdom. Beautiful and innocent Lady Windermere finds out that her husband has been keeping company with the scandalous and mysterious Mrs. Erlynne. Her discovery unleashes a host of tensions at her 21st birthday party, where London's elite have gathered to gossip.

The Wild Duck (Vilanden) is a tragedy with comic episodes. Ibsen himself characterized the play as a tragicomedy. It depicts ordinary life realistically instead of romantically and sentimentally, a revolutionary concept in Ibsen's time. The play is now generally acknowledged as one of Ibsen's supreme accomplishments.

Uncle Vanya is Anton Chekhov's 1902 tragicomedy focusing on the romantic entanglements of the residents of a declining country estate. Vanya loves Helena, the unhappily married wife of aged professor Serebrakoff. Sonia loves Dr. Astroff, but he's more interested in Helena. Serebrakoff loves only himself and is idealized by Vanya's mother, who believes him to be a genius.

The Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde's most famous and oft-produced play. First performed in 1895, and subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People", it shows Wilde at his satirical and scathingly witty best. It follows the misadventures of Algy and Jack as they attempt to woo and wed Cecily and Gwendolen under the assumed name "Ernest", much to the disapproval of the aristocratic Lady Bracknell.

Will the unlikely romance between the rough and tumble stoker, Mat Burke, and Anna Christopherson, the world-weary daughter of the captain of a coal barge, survive? Set in 1910, the timeless question of, "How does love make us grow?" is pondered. This American classic, Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill, is a play in four acts and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.

Louis Esson is considered to be the first great Australian dramatist. The political comedy The Time is Not Yet Ripe was first produced in 1912 and is one of his best known works. Doris, daughter of the incumbent prime minister, Sir Joseph Quiverton, has news for her father - she has just become engaged. Much to Sir Joseph's dismay her fiancé is none other than an opposing candidate in the forthcoming general election - and a revolutionary socialist to boot. Is Sir Joseph in danger of losing both his reputation and his majority in parliament?

In this elegant comedy of manners, Penelope O'Farrell discovers that her husband has been having an affair with an attractive married woman. Instead of lapsing into despair, she decides to employ some cunning strategies to save her marriage.