If you are expecting glass slippers and pumpkin coaches, look elsewhere... This is "a pantomime as Ibsen would have written it, if only it had occurred to him to write one." Set on a "bleak and cheerless heath overlooking the fjord" we meet Ibsenesque heroine Mrs. Inquest, her step-daughter Hilda, and her daughter Hedda, who is engaged to be married to the unfortunate Tesman. Thus begins Calderon's hilarious Ibsenesque version of Cinderella. NOTE from the editor of the volume, published in 1922 after Calderon's death: This play is hardly more than a rough draft, written when the idea was fresh and put aside to be worked on when the right moment should come...

Peer is a dreamer, liar, excellent storyteller and an irresponsible person who avoids all problems. He uses and discards women and looks towards the grandiose, the unattainable. Despite of this, one can't help but like and feel sorry for Peer, as it is easy to recognize something of yourself in him. Peer Gynt is the most well known Norwegian play throughout history and is based loosely on the folklore about Per Gynt. It is a dramatic poem in five acts, and has been aptly described as the story of a life based on procrastination and avoidance. The play is said to be a confrontation with the flock mentality Ibsen meant to recognize the typical Norwegian.

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature. Rich in classical allusion, in Part Two the romantic story of the first Faust is forgotten, and Faust wakes in a field of fairies to initiate a new cycle of adventures and purpose...

Before Downton Abbey, there was Mary Broome. In Allan Monkhouse's 1911 satire, when the son of a middle-class household gets their housemaid pregnant, the two families must try to combine their very different values.

Shakespeare's pastoral comedy was written and first performed around 1599, and presents some of his familiar motifs: a cross-dressing heroine, a wise-cracking fool, brothers usurping their brothers' power, a journey from the court to the country, and various romantic entanglements.

This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898; they were termed "unpleasant" because they were intended, not to entertain their audiences—as traditional Victorian theatre was expected to—but to raise awareness of social problems and to censure exploitation of the laboring class by the unproductive rich. In this play, Dr. Harry Trench becomes disillusioned when he discovers how his fiancee's father, Mr. Sartorius, makes his money. However, it is soon revealed that Trench's own income is far from untainted.

The Tinker's Wedding is a two-act play written by Irish playwright J. M. Synge. The author's only comedy, it is set on a roadside near a chapel in rural Ireland.

The Dance of Death is a play in two parts by the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, written in 1900. It depicts the dissolution of a marriage between Edgar, an artillery captain, and Alice, a former actress. Increasingly isolated in their fort-like house, they manipulate and bait each other, until the unexpected arrival of Curt, Alice's cousin. His presence creates a tense triangular relationship that escalates throughout Part One, and is complicated with the introduction of two of the trio's children, Allan and Judith, in Part Two.

Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.

The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) is the first original drama written in English by a woman. Elizabeth Cary drew on Jewish histories by Josephus to create a closet drama (written to be read, rather than performed live) about Mariam, the second wife of Herod the Great. At the beginning of the play, Mariam believes that Herod has been killed by Octavius, and struggles with how to respond. On the one hand, she is relieved, as she is angry with Herod for killing her brother and grandfather. On the other, she knows that he loved her, and she feels caught by her sense of duty as his wife. When Herod unexpectedly returns, Mariam must decide what to do.

At the request of Mr. Siddons, Manager and Patentee of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, the following Performance was composed. I am very sensible that Mr. Scott’s Poem of “The Lady of the Lake” afforded material for a much superior Drama than the one here presented to the public; but as Mr. Siddons, in all his correspondence with me on the subject, urged expedition, I was more attentive to the interest of a Friend than to the fame of an Author; and the whole piece was arranged, written, and copied in the short space of ten days...

Britten's operas are firmly established in the international repertoire: according to Operabase, they are performed worldwide more than those of any other composer born in the 20th century, and only Puccini and Richard Strauss come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900. Britten went to various sources for his stories from the Bible to Japanese noh plays. This is a collection of twelve of the source stories. All but one are the original texts; the one exception is A Midsummer Night’s Dream which the reader took from Charles Lamb’s telling of the story. Some operas are omitted because no public domain texts could be found for their sources.

The mysterious Frank Ware is a woman writer forced to write under a masculine pseudonym in order to win literary respect. Adding to her enigmatic status is the fact that she lives in New York City with her adopted child, a little son of unknown parentage, mystifying her friends by spending all her spare time in the least savory parts of the City, trying to rescue prostitutes from their hard lives. Eventually, even her closest bohemian and artistic companions begin to ask awkward questions, driving her to difficult, life-changing revelations...

This collection of ten one-act dramas features plays by James M. Barrie, Hereward Carrington, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Alice Gerstenberg, Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook, St. John Hankin, George Middleton, David Pinski, Frederik Pohl, and an unknown Japanese author. The plays were coordinated by Arielle Lipshaw, Availle, Chuck Williamson, Todd, Peter Yearsley, Caprisha Page, Charlotte Duckett, and Amanda Friday.

One of the most shocking plays produced in England during the reign of Charles I, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore chronicles the disastrous results of an incestuous affair between fatalistic Italian siblings, Giovanni and Annabella. As suitors vie for Annabella's hand, various webs of deception and revenge intertwine, culminating in a bloody finale. CAST LISTBonaventura, a Friar/ Bergetto, Nephew to Donado: alanmapstoneA Cardinal, Nuncio to the Pope AND Banditti: Algy PugSoranzo, a Nobleman: tovarischFlorio,...

"Satan's Diary", Andreyev's last work, was completed by the great Russian a few days before he died in Finland, in September, 1919. But a few years ago the most popular and successful of Russian writers, Andreyev died almost penniless, a sad, tragic figure, disillusioned, broken-hearted over the tragedy of Russia. In "Satan's Diary", Andreyev summoned up his boundless disillusionment in an absorbing satire on human life. Fearlessly and mercilessly he hurled the falsehoods and hypocrisies in the face of life...

This collection includes ten one-act plays by David Belasco, Arnold Bennett, Hereward Carrington, Lewis Carroll, Lord Dunsany, John Galsworthy, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Maurice Maeterlinck, Anna Bird Stewart, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Book Coordinators for this collection were Charlotte Duckett, Michele Eaton, Elizabeth Klett, Loveday, Piotr Nater, Algy Pug, Eden Rea-Hedrick, Todd, and Chuck Williamson.

The Boss centers on the relationship between Michael Regan, an Irish-American businessman, and Emily Griswold, an outspoken American girl bent on saving her father's business. Set during a time when unions fought for wages and bosses fought for more stake in their company, the play's relevance strikes at the heart of economic issues and hardships in modern day America.

One-Act Play Collection 007 includes one-act plays in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.

Exiles is a play by James Joyce, who is principally remembered for his novels. It was rejected by W. B. Yeats for production by the Abbey Theatre. Its first major London performance was in 1970, when Harold Pinter directed it at the Mermaid Theatre. The basic premise of Exiles involves a love triangle between Richard Rowan (a Dublin writer recently returned from exile in Rome), Bertha (his common law wife) and his old friend Robert Hand (a journalist). (There are obvious parallels to be drawn with...

One-Act Play Collection 008 includes one-act plays in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.Project BC: Michele Eaton

The classic story of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, now in play form! The play was adapted by Jessie Braham White (the pen name of Winthrop Ames), from the Grimm tale.

This "Afterpiece" - a short play to follow a main production - was first produced in 1746. It was based on Regnard's five-act comedy le Legetaire Universel (1707), which is itself a composite of Italian comedy with echoes of Molière, moving from scene to scene with little effort at logical consistency or structure but treating each scene autonomously for its own comic value. The rather long Prologue to A WILL AND NO WILL (11 pages of manuscript) makes fun of the convention of the eighteenth century prologues by the familiar dodge of having actors chatting as though they were in the Pit waiting for the actors in the preceding main play to dress for the afterpiece.

One May Day, Robin Hood and his Merry Men sit in Sherwood Forest, waiting for a traveller to share their dinner. Enter a distraught Knight with his fair daughter Marian, who owe money to the Sheriff of Nottingham, and have not the means by which to pay it. Meanwhile the greedy Sheriff is visited by the Baron of the Black Castle, who plots to silence the famous outlaw once and for all! This version of the Robin Hood legend was written, and now recorded, as a play, entertaining for children and adults alike...

Arrgh and Shiver Me Timbers! Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver! This is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale as made into a play for The Punch and Judy Theatre Company in 1915. - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Jim Hawkins: Rachel Mrs Hawkins: Jennifer Fournier Dr Livesey: Kristin Gjerløw Squire Trelawney: ToddHW Captain Smollett : Maria Kasper Hunter: David Lawrence Joyce: Elizabeth Travers Gray: Andrew Travers Bill Bones The Captain: Beth Thomas Black Dog: MaryAnnS Pew: Ray Kasper Long John Silver: Adele de Pignerolles Captain Flint : Beth Thomas Morgan: Esther ben Simonides Anderson: Aaron M...

Noh , or Nogaku—derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent"—is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art still regularly performed today. Traditionally, a Noh program includes five Noh plays with comedic kyōgen plays in between, even though an abbreviated program of two Noh plays and one kyōgen piece has become common in Noh presentations today. An okina play may be presented in the very beginning, especially during New Year celebrations, holidays, and other special occasions...

In 2012, the World Shakespeare Festival surveyed Britons as to their favourite plays by Shakespeare. This collection consists of 21 scenes from the most popular plays written by arguably the greatest writer in the English language, possibly any language. It is an homage to the Bard in celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death in 1616 -- the Shakespeare Quadricentennial. - Summary by John Burlinson Roles performed by: Beth Thomas, Michele Eaton, Sonia, Tony Addison and John Burlinson Editing done mainly by Michele Eaton and John Burlinson

Miss Polly Harrington is not at all pleased to be taking charge of her orphaned niece - but duty is duty, and that's how Pollyanna Whittier ended up in New England. Cheerful and ever-optimistic, Pollyanna sets out to infect the whole town with her "Glad" game, getting into some trouble along the way! How will strict Miss Polly react to the orphaned cat, dog, and, worst of all, BOY Pollyanna offers as a gift? What will happen when Pollyanna sets out to break into the fairy-tale castle next door and...

Ninth volume of one-act plays in the public domain read by a variety of members. A Dramatic Evening Narrator: April6090 Mr Thaddeus Perkins: Jeff Moon Mr Edward Bradley: Tomas Peter Mr Robert Yardsley: Tom Penn John Barlow: Mike Harris Mrs Thaddeus Perkins: TriciaG Mrs Edward Bradley: Sonia Jennie: Leanne Yau The Fatal Message Narrator: Linette Geisel Mr Thaddeus Perkins: Jeff Moon Mr Edward Bradley: Tomas Peter Mr Robert Yardsley: Tom Penn John Barlow: Mike...

Caliban, the primitive, savage son of the witch Sycorax and the evil frog-tiger god Setebos, seeks to obtain knowledge and become civilized from a strange magician named Prospero and his young daughter, Miranda. Through fantastic visions , poetry, song and dance, thus begins the slow, gradual education of a inquisitive brute as he faces enlightenment and wicked temptation. Serving as a thematic companion piece and maybe spiritual prequel and midquel to William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Caliban by the Yellow Sands was a massive, elaborate and outdoor "community masque" performed from 1916-1917 in New York and Boston as part of the three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death...

This is the thirteenth collection of monologues from Shakespeare's plays. Our readers have chosen their favourite monologues from Shakespeare's famous comedies, tragedies, and histories, covering a wide range of topics, and emotions. - Summary by Carolin

It's the summer of 1588, and all is not well in England. Citizens are plotting to betray their queen for Spanish gold, and the dreaded Armada is coming closer and closer. It's up to Lord Burleigh and brave Sir Francis Drake to stop them, but will they succeed in convincing Queen Elizabeth that such action is necessary? And when the Spanish ships finally arrive, what will happen to the queen and the citizens of London? Cast List:William Cecil, Lord Burleigh: Tomas Peter Sir Walter Raleigh: Todd Sir Francis Drake: K...