Top 10 Spectacular plays you shouldn’t miss certainly. Since the longest time, before we even had technology people adored visiting theatres on Sunday evenings. And writers like William Shakespeare, Arthur miller and other popular writers have given the community of theatre-art a diverse shot. Truly, art has no boundaries and these playwrights have proved it. Even today people get thrilled to watch a stage play.
So here is a list of top 10 spectacular plays of all times.
1. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet-one of the Top 10 Spectacular plays
William Shakespeare who is well-known for writing incredible pieces of literature. The popular play Hamlet is one of his writings and is one of the longest plays with over 20,000 words. Hamlet play portrays a story of prince hamlet who wants to take revenge from his uncle Claudius, who killed his father. And wants to take over the throne and marry hamlet’s mother. In the world of literature, this work holds a huge significance and is a masterpiece. This play was an inspiration for many other writers like Charles dickens and James Joyce.
2. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
‘Death of a salesman’ is a classic stage play that Arthur Miller penned. And was premiered on February 10 in 1949 at Morocco Theatre, New York. The play depicts memories, dreams and arguments of the character Willy Loman who is a travelling salesman and is living his life in discontent. The play shows a variety of theme such as treachery, American dream and also structure of truth. It tells us about the impact of society on him. It was one of the best plays of the 20th century and has won three Tony Awards for best revival. And thus has found a place in our list of the top 10 Spectacular plays.
3. Angels in America by Tony Kushner
‘Angels in America’ is play of the genre drama and is written by Tony Kushner. It was premiered
On May 1991 at Eureka Theatre company in San Francisco, California. The play presents symbolic examination of aids and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. It involves supernatural beings such as angels as well as deceased persons or ghosts. The actors in the play perform different roles. The play’s main focus is a gay couple in Manhattan. Awards such as Pulitzer Prize for drama, Tony Award for best play and The Drama Desk award for outstanding play have been bagged by this play.
4.Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie
Source: Mental Floss
Written by Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie , was premiered in 1944 in Chicago. The play’s genre is – memory play. This play bought Tennessee William a lot of fame as it is still considered as one of the best plays of all times. The play involves autobiographical features and has characters based on the author of the play, his psychologically fragile sister Laura and his mother who is histrionic. This play was a first successful play written by William and in 1945, won the New York drama critics circle award.
5. John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger
Source: the guardian
Premiered on 8 May, 1956, at Royal Court Theater in London, ‘Look Back In Anger’ was written by John Osborne, its genre being realism. The play depicts the life of Jimmy Porter who was an intelligent and educated man but was dissatisfied and belonged to working class origin. The second character is Alison his wife who belonged to impassive middle class family and was equally knowledgeable as Jimmy. The play received unimaginable amount of appreciation and turned out to be profitable success, making John a rich man from a struggling playwright.
6. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -Edward Albee
October 13, 1962 was the date when this dramatic play was premiered at the Broadway Billy Rose Theater. The writer who wrote this incredible play was Edward Albee. It is about the difficulties of middle aged couple, George and Martha who receive guests one evening, a young unaware couple Nick and Honey. They get involved in the harsh and unsatisfied relationship of Martha and George. It won awards like the Tony Award for best play in 1963 and New York Drama Critics Circle award for best play 1962-1963.
7. Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck
The writer of the play ‘Woyzeck‘ was Georg Buchner and it was premiered in 1913 in Munich. Unfortunately, Georg passed away before he could even finish writing this play, so after his death many authors, translators and editors finished the play together. It depicts struggles of a young man in his life because of dehumanizing effects of doctors and military. This play is one of the best and most influential plays ever written and has been performed many times. It received appreciation by German naturalist Gerhart Hauptmann and other renowned playwrights.
8. Lorraine Hansberry’s- A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry wrote ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and contributed to the theatre world. The genre of the play is a domestic drama and its writers premiered it on March 11, 1959. The play is about a black family living in Chicago who is struggling with financial crisis after the death of the father. It was labelled as the best play of 1959 by the New York Drama Critics Circle. It was also listed in publications such as the Time Out and The Independent as the best plays ever written
9. Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano
Eugene Ionesco wrote the Bald Soprano and the play was premiered on 11 may 1950 at theatre de noctambules in Paris, France. The genre of the play is theatre of absurd and is about an old-style couple the Smiths who invited another couple, Martins, over for a visit. The two families start pointless chitchat. This play holds a world record for longest continuous dramatic performance that lasted for 23 hours 33 minutes 54 seconds. It is performed the most in France.
10. Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal
Written by Sophie Treadwell, the play is inspired from the real life case of a convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder. The play was premiered on September 7 in the year 1928 at Plymouth theatre. The play lies under the category of ‘One the best plays’ and has been appreciated by many famous playwrights.
William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, and humanitarian. He is best known as the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation.
