Dramatic Works audiobooks page 14

Troilus and Cressida is Shakespeare's "problem" play about the Trojan War. As the opening Chorus tells us, the play "begins in the middle" of the epic conflict, and counterpoints the drama of battle with the romance of the title characters. Just as Agamemnon and his Greek forces (particularly the smooth-tongued Ulysses) attempt to woo the invincible Achilles to resume fighting on their side, the Trojan go-between Pandarus tries to bring together Troilus, a son of King Priam, with his niece, the lovely Cressida.

I find it very hard to classify "The New York Idea" under any of the established rubrics. It is rather too extravagant to rank as a comedy; it is much too serious in its purport, too searching in its character-delineation and too thoughtful in its wit, to be treated as a mere farce. Its title—not, perhaps, a very happy one—is explained in this saying of one of the characters: "Marry for whim and leave the rest to the divorce court—that's the New York idea of marriage." Like all the plays, from Sardou's "Divorçons" onward, which deal with a too facile system of divorce, this one shows a discontented woman, who has broken up her home for a caprice, suffering agonies of jealousy when her ex...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the earliest comedy written by Shakespeare (and possibly his first play), probably written around 1590-91. It focuses on two friends, Valentine and Proteus, whose friendship is disrupted by their mutual passion for the lovely Silvia. Proteus jilts Julia in order to pursue Silvia; she responds by enlisting the help of her maid Lucetta to dress as a boy and go after Proteus. The play also includes some wonderfully comic supporting characters, particularly Launce and his scene-stealing dog Crab.

Mad with jealousy, King Leontes of Sicilia orders his best friend Polixenes killed, his child abandoned, and his wife put on trial for adultery. Sixteen years later, Perdita, raised as a shepherd's daughter, falls in love with Polixenes's royal son and returns to her father's kingdom.

A story of a young woman in love and the sacrifices she makes in order to save a man's life when he is accused of murder. Has she gone too far and risked too much? Will she ever find happiness again, or is she destined to live a life of secrecy?

Gordon Bottomley's verse drama in two scenes is a prequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth. He provides Lady Macbeth with a name - Gruach - and imagines her family life and how she meets Macbeth.

The Admirable Bashville is a product of the British law of copyright. As that law stands at present, the first person who patches up a stage version of a novel, however worthless and absurd that version may be, and has it read by himself and a few confederates to another confederate who has paid for admission in a hall licensed for theatrical performances, secures the stage rights of that novel, even as against the author himself; and the author must buy him out before he can touch his own work for the purposes of the stage...As a good Socialist I do not at all object to the limitation of my right of property in my own works to a comparatively brief period, followed by complete Communism:...

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas est une comédie-ballet de Molière (musique de Charpentier et ballets de Beauchamp), commandée par Louis XIV pour le remariage de son frère avec la princesse palatine de Bavière, après son veuvage. Cette œuvre nous montre une provinciale, entichée de bonnes manières qu’elle se vante d’avoir apprises à Paris. On considère cette pièce comme le pendant féminin de Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.


Personnages
La Comtesse : Ezwa
Le Comte : Aldor
Le Vicomte : Jean Lambert
Julie : Jc Guan
Monsieur Tibaudier : Ezwa
Monsieur Harpin : Aldor
Monsieur Bobinet : Christian
Andrée : Jc Guan
Jeannot : Christian
Criquet : Karen Savage
Narratr...

Madelon et Cathos, deux jeunes provinciales, arrivent à Paris en quête d'amour et de jeux d'esprit. Gorgibus, père de Madelon et oncle de Cathos, décide de les marier à deux prétendants, La Grange et Du Croisy, mais ces dernières les ridiculiseront de telle façon que ceux-ci voudront se venger de ces « précieuses ». Entre alors en scène un jeune homme, Mascarille, se prétendant homme du monde fréquentant les meilleurs cercles, qui tombera amoureux de Madelon. Vient ensuite un second homme, Jodelet, dont Cathos s'amourachera. On découvre ensuite que ces deux hommes sont des imposteurs, soit les valets des deux premiers hommes rejetés. Les précieuses sont tombées dans le piège et ont donc m...

Pillars of Society was Ibsen's first successful realist drama, first performed in 1877. Karsten Bernick is the dominant businessman in a small coastal town in Norway, with interests in shipping and shipbuilding in a long-established family firm. Now he is planning his most ambitious project yet, backing a railway which will connect the town to the main line and open a fertile valley which he has been secretly buying up. Suddenly his past explodes on him with the arrival of Lona Hessel, the woman he once jilted, and Johan Tonnesen, who left town in disgrace fifteen years earlier.