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Drama

Embrace the intensity and beauty of life with our Drama collection. From timeless classics to contemporary masterpieces, explore plays that move the heart. Delve into works that examine human emotions, conflicts, and transformations.
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MERCHANT OF VENICE - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Oxford University Press

MERCHANT OF VENICE

$4.96

Goodreads rating: 3.78

$4.96

45% off est. retail
The Oxford School Shakespeare is a well-established series which helps the reader to understand and enjoy Shakespeare's plays. Each play in the series contains the complete text with an extensive range of notes, background information on Shakespeare's England, suggestions for further reading,a brief biograohy of Shakespeare, and a complete list of his plays.
Importance of Being Earnest - Thryft
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Oscar Wilde | Penguin/penguin Popular Classics

Importance of Being Earnest

$3.88

Goodreads rating: 4.17

$3.88

Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The rapid-fire wit and eccentric characters of The Importance of Being Earnest have made it a mainstay of the high school curriculum for decades.Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only an elderly nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!
The Trojan Women and Other Plays - Thryft
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Edith Hall, Euripides, James Morwood  | Oxford University Press

The Trojan Women and Other Plays

$4.57

Goodreads rating: 4.01

$4.57

This volume of Euripides' plays offers new translations of the three great war plays Trojan Women, Hecuba , and Andromache , in which the sufferings of Troy's survivors are harrowingly depicted. With unparalleled intensity, Euripides--whom Aristotle called the most tragic of poets--describes the horrific brutality that both women and children undergo during war. Yet, in the war's aftermath, this brutality is challenged and a new battleground is revealed where the women of Troy evince an overwhelming greatness of spirit.We weep for the aged Hecuba in her name play and in Trojan Women , while at the same time we admire her resilience amid unrelieved suffering. Andromache, the slave-concubine of her husband's killer, endures her existence in the victor's country with a stoic nobility. Of their time yet timeless, these plays insist on the victory of the female spirit amid the horrors visited on them by the gods and men during war.About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Tamburlaine: Pts.1 & 2 - Thryft
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Christopher Marlowe | A & C Black Publishers Ltd

Tamburlaine: Pts.1 & 2

$3.23

Goodreads rating: 3.61

$3.23

88% off est. retail
Recommended for history lovers, interested in captivating characters.
The Merchant of Venice (new edition) - Thryft
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Elizabeth Seely, John Seely, Stuart McKeown  | Heinemann Educational Books

The Merchant of Venice (new edition)

$6.67

Goodreads rating: 3.78

$6.67

The Merchant of Venice (new edition) (Heinemann Shakespeare) [Hardcover] Seely, John; Seely, Elizabeth and McKeown, Stuart
The Beggar's Opera - Thryft
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John Gay, Bryan Loughrey  | Penguin Books

The Beggar's Opera

$4.66

Goodreads rating: 3.4

$4.66

‘Whore and rogue they call husband and wife:All professions be-rogue one another'The tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century. In The Beggar’s Opera, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay’s highly original depiction of the thieves, informers, prostitutes and highwaymen thronging the slums and prisons of the corrupt London underworld proved brilliantly successful in exposing the dark side of a corrupt and jaded society.Bryan Loughrey and T. O. Treadwell’s introduction examines the eighteenth-century background of musical theatre and opera, the changing cityscape of London and the corruption of the legal system. This edition also includes a note on the music in The Beggar’s Opera and suggestions for further reading.
Amadeus - Thryft
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Peter Shaffer | Penguin Classic

Amadeus

$6.68

Goodreads rating: 4.15

$6.68

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a genius, the most brilliant musician the world will ever see. But the court of eighteenth-century Vienna doesn't recognize his talents - only Antonio Salieri, the Court Composer, does, and he is tortured by what he hears. Seething with rage at the genius of this flippant buffoon and suddenly aware of his own mediocrity, Salieri declares war and sets out to destroy the man he sees as God's instrument on earth. Peter Shaffer's award-winning play is a rich, exuberant portrayal of a God-like man among mortals, and lives destroyed by envy.
Hysteria - Thryft
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Terry Johnson | Methuen Drama

Hysteria

$4.79 $2.87 40% off

Goodreads rating: 3.99

$4.79 $2.87 40% off

92% off est. retail
1938. Hampstead, London. Sigmund Freud has fled Nazi-occupied Austria and settled in leafy Swiss Cottage. At eighty-two-years-old, he aims to spend his final days in peace. However, when Salvador Dalí turns up to discover a less-than-fully dressed woman in the closet, peace becomes somewhat elusive . . .An acknowledged modern classic, Terry Johnson's hilarious farce explores the fall-out when two of the twentieth century's most brilliant and original minds collide. It touches on many themes including Nazi Germany, the Surrealist movement, Judaism, Freud's theories of the unconscious mind, family relationships, life and death, and love and loss.Johnson's celebrated play raises intriguing questions about Freud's radical revision of his theories of hysteria.
The Complete Plays of Sophocles : A New Translation - Thryft
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Robert Bagg, Sophocles, James Scully  | Harper Perennial

The Complete Plays of Sophocles : A New Translation

$9.80

Goodreads rating: 4.27

$9.80

Award-winning poet-playwrights Robert Bagg and James Scully presenta gripping new translation of Western literature’s earliest treasures in The Complete Plays of Sophocles. In the tradition of Robert Fagles’ bestselling translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and retaining the textual authenticity of Richmond Lattimore’s Aeschylus, Bagg and Scully render Sophocles’ dramas accessible and exciting for the modern reader. Students new to Athenian drama, readers of classical literature, and anyone wishing to kindle anew their passion for Greek tragedy will find no more captivating entrance to these milestones of world literature than in Bagg and Scully’s The Complete Plays of Sophocles.
"The Merchant of Venice" - Thryft
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John Russell Brown, William Shakespeare  | Arden

"The Merchant of Venice"

$8.93

Goodreads rating: 3.78

$8.93

The Arden Shakespeare is the established edition of Shakespeare's work. Justly celebrated for its authoritative scholarship and invaluable commentary, Arden guides you a richer understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's plays. This edition of The Merchant of Venice provides, a clear and authoritative text, detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text, a full introduction discussing the critical and historical background to the play and appendices presenting sources and relevant extracts.
Hamlet - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Wordsworth Editions Ltd.

Hamlet

$3.88

Goodreads rating: 4.02

$3.88

Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, Professor of English Literature, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The Textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. Hamlet is not only one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, but also the most fascinatingly problematical tragedy in world literature. First performed around 1600, this a gripping and exuberant drama of revenge, rich in contrasts and conflicts. Its violence alternates with introspection, its melancholy with humour, and its subtlety with spectacle. The Prince, Hamlet himself, is depicted as a complex, divided, introspective character. His reflections on death, morality and the very status of human beings make him 'the first modern man'. Countless stage productions and numerous adaptations for the cinema and television have demonstrated the continuing cultural relevance of this vivid, enigmatic, profound and engrossing drama.
Mad Millenium Play - Thryft
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Terry Deary | Scholastic

Mad Millenium Play

$3.88

Goodreads rating: 3.91

$3.88

The Merchant of Venice - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Signet Classics

The Merchant of Venice

$1.90

Goodreads rating: 3.78

$1.90

This Book is Brand new international softcover edition delivered within 7-12 working days via UPS/USPS/DHL and FEDEX.(FOR SALE ONLY U.S. & U.K.)
Woman In Mind - December Bee - Thryft
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Alan Ayckbourn | Faber & Faber

Woman In Mind - December Bee

$3.44

Goodreads rating: 3.89

$3.44

Susan, a hard-working, somewhat neglected parson's wife, fantasizes an ideal family to make up for her sterile home life
The Taming of the Shrew: The Oxford Shakespeare - Thryft
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H.J. Oliver, William Shakespeare  | Oxford University Press

The Taming of the Shrew: The Oxford Shakespeare

$3.30

Goodreads rating: 3.75

$3.30

One of Shakespeare's most rollicking and beloved comedies, The Taming of the Shrew was also one of his earliest, probably written about 1592. The introduction to this edition offers a full and original consideration of the play's textual problems, a study of sources, a survey of scholarship and criticism, with the editor's own critical appreciation, and a study of the comedy's fortunes in the theatre.About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Oxford School Shakespeare: Othello - Thryft
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Roma Gill, William Shakespeare  | Oxford University Press

Oxford School Shakespeare: Othello

$3.53

Goodreads rating: 3.89

$3.53

Oxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed series especially designed for students, with accessible on-page notes that are easy to find and crystal clear. Each volume also includes decorative and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, rigorous but accessible commentary, up-to-date reading lists, the addresses of relevant websites, and classroom notes - all to help students to better appreciate the great works of Shakespeare. Now the six most popular books in the series have received a fresh new look.
Kings Of The Water - Thryft
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Mark Behr | Abacus

Kings Of The Water

$5.07

Goodreads rating: 3.68

$5.07

69% off est. retail
"Kings of the Water" is a deeply moving book that explores themes of family, loss, and forgiveness. It tells the story of Michiel Steyn, who returns to his homeland after many years to confront his past and make peace with the ones he left behind. This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys a gripping family saga and loves to delve into complex themes and characters. It is beautifully written, with vivid descriptions of life in South Africa and fully-realized characters that will stay with you long after you've finished reading. Highly recommended!
The Caretaker / the Dumb Waiter - Thryft
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Harold Pinter | Grove Press

The Caretaker / the Dumb Waiter

$2.95

Goodreads rating: 3.86

$2.95

Jacket description.back: In all of Pinter's plays, seemingly ordinary events become charged with profound, if elusive, meaning, haunting pathos, and wild comedy. In The Caretaker, a tramp finds lodging in the derelict house of two brothers; in The Dumbwaiter, a pair of gunmen wait for the kill in a decayed lodging house. Harold Pinter gradually exposes the inner strains and fear of his characters, alternating hilarity and character to create and almost unbearable edge of tension.
The Taming of the Shrew (No Fear Shakespeare) - Thryft
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William Shakespeare, SparkNotes  | Sparknotes

The Taming of the Shrew (No Fear Shakespeare)

$5.81

Goodreads rating: 3.75

$5.81

No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with a facing-page translation into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today. ebook (online read) can be found here Renowned as Shakespeare's most boisterous comedy, The Taming of the Shrew is the tale of two young men, the hopeful Lucentio and the worldly Petruchio, and the two sisters they meet in Padua. Lucentio falls in love with Bianca, the apparently ideal younger daughter of the wealthy Baptista Minola. But before they can marry, Bianca's formidable elder sister, Katherine, must be wed. Petruchio, interested only in the huge dowry, arranges to marry Katherine -against her will- and enters into a battle of the sexes that has endured as one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable works.
The Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare) - Thryft
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John Crowther, SparkNotes, William Shakespeare  | Sparknotes

The Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare)

$3.88

Goodreads rating: 3.78

$3.88

81% off est. retail
The Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare) is perfect for Shakespeare enthusiasts who are looking for an easier way to comprehend the play. The guide provides a line-by-line translation of the original play, ensuring readers can easily understand the dialogue. Recommended for those who want to delve deeper into the world of Shakespeare!
A View from the Bridge - Thryft
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Arthur Miller | Penguin Books Ltd, Uk

A View from the Bridge

$8.65

Goodreads rating: 3.7

$8.65

Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge is a tragic masterpiece of the inexorable unravelling of a man, set in a close-knit Italian-American community in 1950s New York. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it's a privilege to take in his wife's cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, straight off the boat from Italy. But, as his niece Catherine begins to fall for one of them, it's clear that it's not just, as Eddie claims, that he's too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong - and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can't face. Something which threatens the happiness of their whole family.This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by the author and a new foreword by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Inherit The Wind - Thryft
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Robert E. Lee, Jerome Lawrence  | Spark Pub

Inherit The Wind

$4.64

Goodreads rating: 3.93

$4.64

One of the most moving and meaningful plays in American theaterThe accused was a slight, frightened man who had  deliberately broken the law. His trial was a Roman circus. The chief gladiators were two great legal  giants of the century. Like two bull elephants  locked in mortal combat, they bellowed and roared  imprecations and abuse. The spectators sat uneasily  in the sweltering heat with murder in their hearts, barely able to restrain themselves. At stake was  the freedom of every American.
Heinemann Advanced Shakespeare: Othello - Thryft
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John Seely | Heinemann Educational Books

Heinemann Advanced Shakespeare: Othello

$9.28

Goodreads rating: 3.89

$9.28

67% off est. retail
This book would be a great read for students studying Othello for their exams, as it provides accessible notes and activities that aid in understanding and encourage insights. The end-of-act activities allow for a further exploration of the text and can prepare students for specific exam questions.
Sophocles - Thryft
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Richmond Lattimore, David Grene, Sophocles  | University Of Chicago Press

Sophocles

$7.05

Goodreads rating: 3.99

$7.05

"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."—Robert Brustein, The New Republic"This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."—Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation"The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."— Times Education Supplement"These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."—Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian"The critical commentaries and the versions themselves...are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."— Commonweal"Grene is one of the great translators."—Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times"Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."—Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review
Romeo And Juliet - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Wordsworth Classics

Romeo And Juliet

$2.90

Goodreads rating: 3.74

$2.90

Love, sex and death are the components of Shakespeare's classic story of the love of two young people which reaches across the barriers of family and convention. It encompasses great love, high drama, low comedy and a tragic ending.Romeo and Juliet is a pure tragedy of youth told in verse that is both youthful and intense. The loveliness and the music of the poetry make believable the otherwise commonplace afflications of blighted love. The beautiful personification of some of the main characters has caused Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and the Nurse to become part of the world's literary mythology.The text of this edition is taken from the Cambridge University Press New Shakespeare, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and John Dover Wilson.(back cover)
The Essential Pinter : Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter - Thryft
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Harold Pinter | Grove Press

The Essential Pinter : Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter

$10.68

Goodreads rating: 4.17

$10.68

Harold Pinter is one of our most profound poets and playwrights, with work ranging from his plays The Caretaker , The Homecoming , and Betrayal to such poems as "The Bombs" and "Death." A writer known for his searing exploration of power, Pinter gives us an electrifying look into the often uncomfortable relationships between people — whether family members or political opponents. The Essential Pinter , which includes key plays, poetry, essays, and screenplays, is an indispensable companion for anyone wishing to delve into the astonishingly dazzling and frequently ominous world of Harold Pinter. In voyaging in, we not only come to fully appreciate the breadth of a body of work spanning over fifty years, but acquire a better understanding of human interaction.
The Bacchae And Other Plays - Thryft
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Euripides, John Davie, Richard Rutherford  | Penguin Classics

The Bacchae And Other Plays

$6.92

Goodreads rating: 4.15

$6.92

Euripides (c.484-406 B.C.) was the most controversial of the three great Greek tragedians and the most modern. His major themes- religious scepticism, the injustices suffered by women and the destructive folly of war-are issues still vitally important today.
The Playboy Of The Western World And Other Plays - Riders To The Sea; The Shadow Of The Glen; The Tinker's Wedding; The Well Of The Saints; The Playboy Of The Western World; Deirdre Of The Sorrows - Thryft
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J.M. Synge, Ann Saddlemyer  | Oxford University Press

The Playboy Of The Western World And Other Plays - Riders To The Sea; The Shadow Of The Glen; The Tinker's Wedding; The Well Of The Saints; The Playboy Of The Western World; Deirdre Of The Sorrows

$5.32

Goodreads rating: 3.71

$5.32

Synge was one of the key dramatists in the flourishing world of Irish literature at the turn of the century. This volume offers every one of his plays, which range from racy comedy to stark tragedy, all sharing a memorable lyricism. The introduction to this new, definitive edition sets the plays in the context of the Irish literary movement, with special attention to Synge's role as one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre and his work alongside W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory.Includes: Riders to the Sea The Shadow of the Glen The Tinker's Wedding The Well of the Saints The Playboy of the Western World Deirdre of the Sorrows
Travesties - Thryft
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Tom Stoppard | Grove Press

Travesties

$5.77

Goodreads rating: 3.95

$5.77

Travesties was born out of Stoppard's noting that in 1917 three of the twentieth century's most crucial revolutionaries -- James Joyce, the Dadaist founder Tristan Tzara, and Lenin -- were all living in Zurich. Also living in Zurich at this time was a British consula official called Henry Carr, a man acquainted with Joyce through the theater and later through a lawsuit concerning a pair of trousers. Taking Carr as his core, Stoppard spins this historical coincidence into a masterful and riotously funny play, a speculative portrait of what could have been the meeting of these profoundly influential men in a germinal Europe as seen through the lucid, lurid, faulty, and wholy riveting memory of an aging Henry Carr.
Serious Money - Thryft
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Caryl Churchill | Methuen Drama

Serious Money

$7.12

Goodreads rating: 3.0

$7.12

Serious Money is perhaps Caryl Churchill's most provocative play. It is a satirical study of the effects of the "Big Bang" boom of financial markets in the 1980s and how it gave rise to hectic, chaotic, high velocity work where human values are compromised for success and wealth.The dialogue of the play is largely overlapping with the ingenious rhyming couplets and singsong verse. It is so stylized that Churchill even includes a rhymed soliloquy and a rap number. Language in the play is coarse, there being a particular emphasis on scatological humour, and the tone is overwhelmingly angry. Churchill's characters are drawn razor sharp cartoonishly. The play's plot revolves around financial wheeler-dealers that were born into the boom and want to maximize profits above all else. The tone is contemporary, edgy, witty and has been viewed by some as massively offensive: it is a perfect example of one of Churchill's most hard-hitting works.This Student Edition contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play, a discussion of the various interpretations and notes on individual words and phrases in the text.
Wit - Thryft
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Margaret Edson | Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Wit

$5.42

Goodreads rating: 4.14

$5.42

This is a full length drama for a cast of 6 (3 men, 3 women, 4+ men or women (flexible casting)). THE Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliant and difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to the study of aggressively probing, intensely rational. But during the course of her illness—and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital—Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.
The Spanish Tragedy - Thryft
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Stephen Bevington | Manchester University Press

The Spanish Tragedy

$1.57

Goodreads rating: 3.56

$1.57

The "revenge" play became the most durable and commercially successful type of drama on the Elizabethan stage. This example by Thomas Kyd, who was one of the originators of the genre, brings to life the intrigues of the Spanish court, dramatically juxtaposing romantic passion with sudden violent death and clandestine politics. The ghost of Dan Andrea and his guide Revenge observe the dark and bloody action throughout, provoking questions about the nature of the human condition.
A Streetcar Named Desire - Thryft
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Tennessee Williams | Methuen Drama

A Streetcar Named Desire

$8.55

Goodreads rating: 3.98

$8.55

This classic play shows a turbulent confrontation between traditional values in the American South – an old-world graciousness and beauty running decoratively to seed – set against the rough-edged, aggressive materialism of the new world.
Much Ado about Nothing - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Wordsworth Editions

Much Ado about Nothing

$3.73

Goodreads rating: 4.06

$3.73

Much Ado About Nothing is probably the most satisfying, and certainly the liveliest and most charming, of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films. The witty badinage between Branagh and his then-wife Emma Thompson, as Benedick and Beatrice, is as bright and sunny as the golden sunlight that shines on the Tuscan villa where the picture was shot. This production--and don't ask about the plot, just remember the title--is an ebullient celebration of art and artifice, culminating in a joyous dance, and performed at a brisk pace by an all-star cast, including Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton. --Jim Emerson
Antony and Cleopatra - Thryft
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William Shakespeare, David Bevington  | Cambridge University Press

Antony and Cleopatra

$6.77

Goodreads rating: 3.7

$6.77

In this edition of the play David Bevington shows how the theatrical design and imaginative vision of Antony and Cleopatra make it one of Shakespeare's most remarkable tragedies. A substantial critical introduction synthesises the best criticism of the play and presents a fresh consideration of its erotic and political complexities. The edition is throughout attentive to the play as theatre: a detailed, illustrated account of the stage history is followed, in the commentary, by discussion of staging options offered by the text. The commentary is especially full and helpful, untangling many obscure words and phrases, illuminating sexual puns, and alerting the reader to Shakespeare's shaping of his source material in Plutarch's Lives.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Thryft
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William Shakespeare | Geddes & Grosset

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

$7.49

Goodreads rating: 4.48

$7.49

68% off est. retail
This book could be a good read for anyone who wants to experience the timeless works of William Shakespeare, from tragedy to comedy, history to romance, fantasy to horror. The glossary of obsolete words and variations from their ordinary established meaning makes the reading experience easier to understand. This book is a must-have for literature lovers who want to delve into the vast range of human experience that is still poignant in modern times. Users would most likely review this book as a must-read classic that never goes out of style.
King Henry IV: Pt.2 - Thryft
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William Shakespeare, Peter Hobley Davison  | Penguin Books

King Henry IV: Pt.2

$1.05

Goodreads rating: 3.77

$1.05

87% off est. retail
The New Penguin Shakespeare offers a complete edition of the plays and poems. Each volume hs been newly prepared from the original texts and includes an introduction, a list of further reading, a full and helpful commentary, and a short account of the textual problems of the play.
An Enemy of the People - Thryft
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Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller  | Penguin Books

An Enemy of the People

$1.53

Goodreads rating: 3.86

$1.53

When Dr. Stockmann discovers that the water in the small Norwegian town in which he is the resident physician has been contaminated, he does what any responsible citizen would do: reports it to the authorities. But Stockmann's good deed has the potential to ruin the town's reputation as a popular spa destination, and instead of being hailed as a hero, Stockmann is labeled an enemy of the people. Arthur Miller's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic drama is a classic in itself, a penetrating exploration of what happens when the truth comes up against the will of the majority. This edition includes Arthur Miller’s preface and an introduction by John Guare.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.
The Effect - Thryft
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Lucy Prebble | Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

The Effect

$3.58

Goodreads rating: 3.92

$3.58

You're on a placebo, Tristan. Least I've got an excuse. She told me: you're nothing, you're a control. This is all just you.The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction.Following on from the critical and commercial success of Enron, The Effect is the latest play from Lucy Prebble, and reunites Enron's writer and director once more delivering a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart. This world premiere was performed at the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre from November 2012-23 February 2013, starring Billie Piper and Jonjo O'Neill.The Guardian has selected The Effect as one of the highlights of 'the best theatre for autumn 2012' (2/9/12).
Leopoldstadt - Thryft
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Tom Stoppard | Faber Faber

Leopoldstadt

$5.12

Goodreads rating: 4.38

$5.12

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann's extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and - for Austrian Jews - the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn't ended yet.Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt was first performed at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in January 2020. 'One of Britain's greatest living playwrights to provide his most personal play yet.' The Times'The news that Tom Stoppard has written a new drama ranks as top-end seismic activity.' Daily Telegraph
The First Quarto of Hamlet - Thryft
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William Shakespeare, Kathleen O. Irace  | Cambridge University Press

The First Quarto of Hamlet

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Goodreads rating: 4.02

$4.48 $2.00 55% off

96% off est. retail
The First Quarto of Hamlet is a must-read for those interested in Shakespeare's creative process. This edition provides a closer look at an early version of Hamlet and the changes made in subsequent editions. The unique scenes and alternate plot elements offer a fresh perspective on a classic play and may inspire new ideas for performances.
The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles, Pt.1 v. 8 - Thryft
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Richmond Lattimore, David Grene, Sophocles  | University Of Chicago Press

The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles, Pt.1 v. 8

$6.94

Goodreads rating: 3.99

$6.94

"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."—Robert Brustein, The New Republic"This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."—Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation"The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."— Times Education Supplement"These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."—Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian"The critical commentaries and the versions themselves...are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."— Commonweal"Grene is one of the great translators."—Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times"Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."—Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review
'Night, MA - Thryft
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Marsha Norman | Hill And Wang

'Night, MA

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Goodreads rating: 3.9

$2.13

'night, Mother is a taut and fluid drama that addresses different emotions and special relations. By one of America's most talented playwrights, this play won the Dramatists Guild's prestigious Hull-Warriner Award, four Tony nominations, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1983.'night, Mother had its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in December 1982. It opened on Broadway in March 1983, directed by Tom Moore and starring Anne Pitoniak and Kathy Bates; a film, starring Anne Bancroft and Sissy Spacek, was released in 1986.
Death of a Salesman : Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem - Thryft
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Arthur Miller | Penguin Modern Classics

Death of a Salesman : Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

$6.95

Goodreads rating: 3.57

$6.95

In the spring of 1948 Arthur Miller retreated to a log cabin in Connecticut with the first two lines of a new play already fixed in his mind. He emerged six weeks later with the final script of Death of a Salesman - a painful examination of American life and consumerism. Opening on Broadway the following year, Miller's extraordinary masterpiece changed the course of modern theatre. In creating Willy Loman, his destructively insecure anti-hero, Miller himself defined his aim as being 'to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life'.
Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays - Thryft
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Mark Musa, Luigi Pirandello  | Penguin Classics

Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays

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Goodreads rating: 3.94

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Pirandello (1867-1936) is the founding architect of twentieth-century drama, brilliantly innovatory in his forms and themes, and in the combined energy, imagination and visual colours of his theatre.This volume of plays, translated from the Italian by Mark Musa, opens with Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello's most popular and controversial work in which six characters invade the stage and demand to be included in the play. The tragedy Henry IV dramatizes the lucid madness of a man who may be King. In So It Is (If You Think So) the townspeople exercise a morbid curiosity attempting to discover 'the truth' about the Ponza family. Each of these plays can lay claim to being Pirandello's masterpiece, and in exploring the nature of human personality each one stretches the resources of drama to their limits.
Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer - Thryft
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Tennessee Williams, Martin Sherman  | New Directions

Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer

$9.29

Goodreads rating: 4.33

$9.29

Two of Tennessee Williams's most revered dramas in a single paperback edition for the first time. Orpheus Descending is a love story, a plea for spiritual and artistic freedom, as well as a portrait of racism and intolerance. When charismatic drifter Valentine Xavier arrives in a Mississippi Delta town with his guitar and snakeskin jacket, he becomes a trigger for hatred and a magnet for three outcast storekeeper Lady Torrance, “lewd vagrant” Carol Cutrere, and religious visionary Vee Talbot. Suddenly Last Summer , described by its author as a “short morality play,” has become one of his most notorious works due in no small part to the film version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift that shocked audiences in 1959. A menacing tale of madness, jealousy, and denial,the horrors in Suddenly Last Summer build to a heart-stopping conclusion. With perceptive new introductions by playwright Martin Sherman ― he reframes Orpheus Descending in a political context and explores the psychology and sensationalism surrounding Suddenly Last Summer ― this volume also offers Williams’s related essay, “The Past, the Present, and the Perhaps,” and a chronology of the playwright’s life and works.
Four Major Plays Vol.1 : Centennial Edition - Thryft
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Henrik Ibsen, Rolf Fjelde, Joan Templeton  | Signet

Four Major Plays Vol.1 : Centennial Edition

$1.20

Goodreads rating: 4.05

$1.20

Four Major  Volume IA Doll House • The Wild Duck  •  Hedda Gabler  •  The Master BuilderAmong the greatest and best known of Ibsen’s works, these four plays brilliantly exemplify his landmark contributions to the his realistic dialogue, probing of social problems, and depiction of characters’ inner lives as well as their actions. Rich in symbolism and often autobiographical, each of these dramas deals convincingly and provocatively with such universal themes as greed, fear, and sexual hostility, and confronts the eternal conflict between reality and illusion. These Rolf Fjelde translations have been widely acclaimed as the definitive versions of the major works of the father of modern theater.Translated and with a Foreword by Rolf FjeldeAnd an Afterword by Joan Templeton
Desdemona - Thryft
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Peter Sellars, Rokia Traoré, Toni Morrison  | Oberon Books

Desdemona

$7.67

Goodreads rating: 3.86

$7.67

The story of Desdemona from Shakespeare's Othello is re-imagined by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer and songwriter Rokia Traoré, and acclaimed stage director Peter Sellars. Morrison's response to Sellars’ 2009 production of Othello is an intimate dialogue of words and music between Desdemona and her African nurse Barbary. Morrison gives voice and depth to the female characters, letting them speak and sing in the fullness of their hearts. Desdemona is an extraordinary narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war — and the transformative power of love. Toni Morrison transports one of the most iconic, central, and disturbing treatments of race in Western culture into the new realities and potential outcomes facing a rising generation of the 21st century.
The Importance Of Being Earnest : And Other Plays - Thryft
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Oscar Wilde, Sylvan Barnet  | Signet Classic

The Importance Of Being Earnest : And Other Plays

$4.03

Goodreads rating: 4.24

$4.03

A universal favorite, The Importance of Being Earnest displays Oscar Wilde's wit and theatrical genius at their brilliant best. Subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," this hilarious attack on Victorian manners and morals turns a pompous world on it's head, lets duplicity lead to happiness, and makes riposte the highest form of art. Written, according to Wilde, "by a butterfly for butterflies," this, his last and greatest play, is not only wonderfully lighthearted, but a dazzling masterpiece of comic entertainment.Although it was originally written in four acts, The Importance of Being Earnest is usually performed in a three-act version. This authoritative edition features an appendix that restores valuable lines that appeared in the original.Also included in this special collection are Wilde's first comedy success, Lady Windermere's Fan and his richly sensual melodrama, Salome, which he called "that terrible coloured little tragedy I once in some strange mood wrote" - and which shocked and enraged the censors of his time.With an introduction by Sylvan Barnet, Professor of English at Tufts University.
Oxford School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet - Thryft
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William Shakespeare, Roma Gill  | Oxford University Press

Oxford School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

$6.47

Goodreads rating: 3.74

$6.47

This edition of Romeo and Juliet is especially designed for students, with accessible on-page notes and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, and rigorous but accessible scholarly credentials. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes, allowing students to master Shakespeare's work.About the Series: Newly redesigned and easier to read, each play in the Oxford School Shakespeare series includes the complete and unabridged text, detailed and clear explanations of difficult words and passages, a synopsis of the plot, summaries of individual scenes, and notes on the main characters. Also included is a wide range of questions and activities for work in class, together with the historical background to Shakespeare's England, a brief biography of Shakespeare, and a complete list of his plays.

Dive into the World of Drama

At Thryft, our Drama collection showcases literature that unravels the complexities of human nature. We offer a curated selection of dramatic works from celebrated playwrights around the globe. Whether you're a seasoned dramatist or a curious newcomer, there's something here to ignite your passion for theatre. Discover the power of stories that reflect on the human condition and fuel the dialogue on society and self.