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La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream)
Written by Pedro Calderon De La Barca, this play exemplifies the Spanish Golden Age of Theater. Characetristics of the Spanish Golden Age of Theater include the theme of honor in the post Muslim rule of Spain. La vida es sueño's theme of free will versus fate is heavily influenced by Spain's Catholic Counter-Reformation against Calvinism. -
The Provoked Wife
John Vanbrugh's play is an example of Restoration Comedy, specifically the later Comedy Renaissance. The Comedy Renaissance sought to appeal to socially mixed audiences and women. The Provoked Wife addressed the legal position of married women, which reflected the issues presented by several cases in the mid 1690s to the House of Lords. -
The Beggar's Opera
John Gay's play heavily satirised Italian Opera which had become popular in the 1700s in London. It is one of the most notable in the genre of Augustan drama, andone of the few still well-knonw plays in the genre of satirical ballad opera. It was one of the more popular pieces of Restoration Comedy. -
Faust
The first part of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust was published in 1806, and the second part was completed in 1831. Faust was an example of the Romanticism movement in German theater. German Romanticism was heavily influnced by the trends in 19th century philosphy, such as the instincts guiding moral before and transcendent knowledge, exemplified by Faust's mysticism. -
The Mikado
The Mikado written by the duo of Gilbert and Sullivan was one of the leading plays that inspired a wider interest in musical theater in Europe. The comic opera also referenced the growing interest that Western Europeans held in Asia. The usage of Japan as the setting allowed for this play to more sharply criticize the British government. -
The Theater and Its Double
The Theater and its double by Antonin Artaud developed a form of theater known as "Theatre of Cruelty" which was an avant garde form of theater heavily rooted in surrealism. This movement was seen as a break from traditional Western theater. Unlike the Theater of the Absurd, the Theater of Cruelty was meant to be an asault on the senses
