Audiobooks online: genre "Plays", page 12

The setup here is that Moliere and his troupe have been sent for by the King to come perform at Versailles. But instead of the piece they had prepared, the King has just asked for an entirely new piece - to be ready later that same day! So all the action of the play takes place b...

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedy by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place within a single day. "Sooner or later," Wilde n...

Henry VI, Part 1 or The First Part of Henry the Sixth (often written as 1 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 2 Henry VI deals with the King's inability to q...

Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts was first published in 1881 and staged in 1882, and like his earlier play A Doll's House, profoundly shocked his contemporaries. Dubbed "a dirty deed done in public" by one of its critics, the play focuses on (among other things) venereal disease, euthan...

"This comedy was produced at Drury Lane on December 14, 1702. It is the most accurate of all Farquhar's productions. The plot, though improbable, is well constructed and sustained, the dialogue lively and entertaining, whilst the characters of the Younger Wouldbe, Mrs. Mandrake, ...

"The Wonderful Magician" is perhaps better known to poetical students in England from the spirited fragment Shelley has left us in his "Scenes from Calderon." The preoccupation of a subject by a great master throws immense difficulties in the way of any one who ventures to follow...

Rev. Mark Spencer is about to give up on writing his sermon one Saturday night when the Devil comes to him and tries to discourage him by reminding him how few of the people who have pledged themselves to make their motto, 'For Christ and the Church' keep it. The minister decides...

Pippa Passes was a dramatic piece, as much play as poetry, by Robert Browning published in 1841 as the first volume of his Bells and Pomegranates series.The author described the work as the first of a series of dramatic pieces. His original idea was of a young, innocent girl,...

This is a lovely comedy about the theft of a prostitute's purse by a rich 'young man of good family. It is placed beside the theft of a silver cigarette case from the rich man's father's house by 'a poor devil', with very different repercussions. - Summary by Michele Eaton

Three Sisters is a naturalistic play about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. It describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family, the three sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina) and their brother Andrei. They are a...

The Bourgeois Gentleman of the title is a middle-class social climber, assured that by learning all the arts of a true and noble gentleman, he shall truly become one. This enables Moliere to satire both the pretentious middle class and the snobbish aristocracy all at one time. ...

Don Juan (Spanish), Don Giovanni (Italian) is a legendary, fictional libertine. Although the various iterations of the Don Juan myth show some variation, the basic story remains the same. Don Juan is portrayed as a wealthy, seductive libertine who devotes his life to seducing wo...