Drama
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Library Description: “From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century.” The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.”
Access: Only three students can read this ebook at a time.
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Library Description: “Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of Black people’s lives been seen on the stage,” observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. This edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry’s landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff. Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of Black America—and changed American theater forever. The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which warns that a dream deferred might “dry up/like a raisin in the sun.”
Access: Only one student can read this ebook at a time.
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Library Description: “David Henry Hwang’s beautiful, heartrending play featuring an afterword by the author – winner of a 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and nominated for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize-Based on a true story that stunned the world, M. Butterfly opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government—and by his own illusions. In the darkness of his cell he recalls a time when desire seemed to give him wings. A time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive—and as elusive—as a butterfly. How could he have known, then, that his ideal woman was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government—and a man disguised as a woman? In a series of flashbacks, the diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both. But in the end, there remains only one truth: Whether or not Gallimard’s passion was a flight of fancy, it sparked the most vigorous emotions of his life. Only in real life could love become so unreal. And only in such a dramatic tour de force do we learn how a fantasy can become a man’s mistress—as well as his jailer. M. Butterfly is one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes—and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions. M. Butterfly remains one of the most influential romantic plays of contemporary literature, and in 1993 was made into a film by David Cronenberg starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.”
Access: Only one student can read this ebook at a time.
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
Library Description: It’s Christmastime in Norway, and Norma Helmer is preparing her lovely home for the holidays. A dainty, jovial woman, Norma is adored by her husband, Torvald, and their three children. But when an old friend comes to visit, Norma reveals that her life is not as carefree as it seems. Norma is keeping a secret from Torvald, a secret that would shatter his illusion of her as the perfect wife. But is she prepared to maintain that illusion for the rest of her life? This unabridged edition of Henrik Ibsen’s provocative three-act play, originally published in 1879, explores the life of a 19th-century wife, ready to disregard social customs and financial security for a shot at independence.
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People
Library Description: Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People in 1882 as a response to the public outrage over his play Ghosts. Part comedy, part serious drama, the play looks at Dr. Thomas Stockmann’s struggle to uphold the truth in the face of intolerance and willful ignorance, as his entire community turns against him. Branded an “Enemy of the People,” Dr. Stockmann can only take solace in the idea that “the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone.”
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
James Ijames, Fat Ham
Library Description: “Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, James Ijames’ Fat Ham reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece in startling and hilarious ways amidst the backdrop of a family barbecue in the American South. Winner of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama. Juicy—a young, queer, Southern man, who is grappling with questions of identity—is visited by the ghost of his father (Pap) at his mother’s wedding/family barbecue. Pap demands that Juicy avenge his recent murder. How will Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man, trying to break a cycle of trauma and toxic masculinity, avenge his father’s premature death? Fat Ham reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece in startling and hilarious ways amidst the backdrop of a family barbeque in the American South.”
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men
Library Description: “A landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival—featuring an introduction by David MametA blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them—and of America, at its best and worst. After the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.”
Access: Only one student can read this ebook at a time.
Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
Library Description: “NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • Four seminal plays by one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. An existential portrayal of Hell in Sartre’s best-known play, as well as three other brilliant, thought-provoking works: the reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, the conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and conflict, and an arresting attack on American racism.”
Access: Only one student can read this ebook at a time.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Library Description: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Brooding Hamlet, the son of the recently deceased king, is about to discover the royal family’s corruption firsthand. Taken by the castle watchman to meet the apparition they see at night, Hamlet is surprised to find it is his father’s ghost. Hamlet seeks to avenge his father’s dishonorable death, but the casualties along the way may prove to be just as tragic. Enter William Shakespeare’s famous world of betrayal, madness, and “murder most foul” through this unabridged version of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, first published in England in 1603.
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Library Description: Hermia’s father has given her a seemingly impossible decision: marry Demetrius, a man she doesn’t love, or die. Instead, she decides to take fate into her own hands and run off with her true love, Lysander. Demetrius sets off into the forest to find them, followed by Helena, a young woman smitten with Demetrius, whom he constantly ignores. But the forest is filled with fairies—including the mischievous Puck—whose magic just might spoil everything. This is an unabridged version of William Shakespeare’s multilayered comedy, first published in England in 1600.
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
William Shakespeare, Othello
Library Description: Othello, a general in the Venetian army, has married the lovely Desdemona, and Roderigo is not at all happy. He was hoping to woo Desdemona for himself. Roderigo’s jealousy is all Iago, Roderigo’s sneaky friend, needs, as he has his own reasons to be angry with Othello. By weaving an intricate web of deceit, infidelity, and envy, Iago is able to plant false suspicions and lead people to commit crimes that will destroy the relationships dearest to them. This is an unabridged version of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, first published in England in 1622.
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
William Shakespeare, Richard III
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
Library Description: Disregard for messages from the oracles and gods doesn’t turn out well for characters in Greek stories, and Oedipus is no exception. Encompassing murder and betrayal, incest and patricide, this set of three plays follows the life of a man doomed to suffer from birth. Sophocles wrote these classic Greek tragedies in fifth century BCE. This English translation, by F. Storr, was first published in 1912.
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Library Description: “Jack Worthing gets antsy living at his country estate. As an excuse, he spins tales of his rowdy brother Earnest living in London. When Jack rushes to the city to confront his ‘brother,’ he’s free to become Earnest and live a different lifestyle. In London, his best friend, Algernon, begins to suspect Earnest is leading a double life. Earnest confesses that his real name is Jack and admits the ruse has become tricky as two women have become enchanted with the idea of marrying Earnest. On a whim, Algernon also pretends to be Earnest and encounters the two women as they meet at the estate. With two Earnests who aren’t really earnest and two women in love with little more than a name, this play is a classic comedy of errors. This is an unabridged version of Oscar Wilde’s English play, first published in 1899.”
Access: Multiple students can read this ebook at once.
August Wilson, Fences
Library Description: From legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
Access: Only one student can read this ebook at a time.
