National Network for Equitable Library Service

Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His literary output of plays, novels, stories, and poetry has earned him an uncontested place as one of the greatest writers of our time. Endgame, originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, is considered by many critics to be his greatest single work. A pinnacle of Beckett's characteristic raw minimalism, it is a pure and devastating distillation of the human essence in the face of approaching death.

Fans of thought-provoking drama will relish George Bernard Shaw's classic take on gender roles and relations, Man and Superman. Packed with plenty of big ideas, this engaging work helped rank Bernard Shaw among the most significant and influential dramatists of his era.

One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. Having married Medea and fathered her two children, Jason abandons her for a more favorable match, never suspecting the terrible revenge she will take. Euripides' masterly portrayal of the motives fiercely driving Medea's pursuit of vengeance for her husband's insult and betrayal has held theater audiences spellbound for more than twenty centuries.

Read the controversial play that caused an international sensation when it was first performed. George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession takes a frank and matter-of-fact look at the world's oldest profession and makes an explicit link between the second-class citizenship that has been foisted upon women for thousands of years and the persistence of prostitution as an occupation.

Shakespeare's comedy play Much Ado About Nothing pivots around the impediments to love for young betrothed Hero and Claudio when Hero is falsely accused of infidelity and the "lover's trap" set for the arrogant and assured Benedick who has sworn off marriage and his gentle adversary Beatrice. The merry war between Benedick and Beatrice with the promptings of their friends soon dissolves into farcical love, while Hero's supposed infidelity is shown to be little more than "much ado about nothing".

Ils sont trois. Trois adolescents insouciants, complices depuis la petite enfance. Lorsqu'ils plantent leurs tentes près de la rivière Brûlée, Aby, Jude et Alex sont loin de se douter que la partie de plaisir qu'ils avaient imaginée tournera au drame. Ils rient, ils boivent, ils bouffent, jusqu'à ce que la menace qui plane sur leur campement les contraigne à une course effrénée à travers bois, pendant qu'au village, la fête bat son plein. Tout comme dans son roman à succès Bondrée — Andrée A. Michaud fait monter la tension d'une main experte.

In a terrifyingly short time, a male college instructor and his female student descend from a discussion of her grades into a modern reprise of the Inquisition. Innocuous remarks suddenly turn damning. Socratic dialogue gives way to heated assault. And the relationship between a somewhat fatuous teacher and his seemingly hapless pupil turns into a fiendishly accurate X ray of the mechanisms of power, censorship, and abuse.

Considered by many the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies, Oedipus Rex is Sophocles' finest play and a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Aristotle considered it a masterpiece of dramatic construction and refers to it frequently in the Poetics. In presenting the story of King Oedipus and the tragedy that ensues when he discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother, the play exhibits near-perfect harmony of character and action.

Believed to have been written in 1603, Shakespeare's Othello is a tragedy that puts the playwright's prodigious creative gifts on full display. Based loosely on a Renaissance-era Italian tale, Othello follows the stormy relationship of the Moorish general Othello and his lovely wife Desdemona. Addressing timeless themes of love and betrayal, as well as surprisingly contemporary concepts such as race-based stereotypes, Othello is a satisfying read for modern-day fans of the Bard.

A political family confronts its dark history in this Pulitzer Prize-finalist play “with gleaming dialogue [and] tantalizing hints of a dangerous mystery” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times).—Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.—Brooke Wyeth hasn’t been home to visit her parents in years. But now she’s back in Palm Springs for Christmas, and she has a startling announcement to make.