Plays Flashcards
Which play by George Bernard Shaw named after a Greek mythological figure has been adapted as the musical My Fair Lady?
PYGMALION
Known for The Birthday Party The Homecoming and Betrayal who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005?
HAROLD PINTER
Which playwright’s major works include A Doll’s House Hedda Gabler Ghosts The Wild Duck and The Master Builder?
HENRIK IBSEN
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt is based on the true story of which Lord Chancellor of England?
THOMAS MORE
Written by Edmond Rostand which play is a fictionalisation of the life of a French author and dualist who had a big nose?
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Which play by Alan Bennett follows a group of pupils at a grammar school in Sheffield preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations?
THE HISTORY BOYS
Sometimes described as a tragic hero who is the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman?
WILLY LOMAN
Who wrote Accidental Death of an Anarchist which premiered in Milan in 1970?
DARIO FO
Which play by Tennessee Williams examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy Pollitt’s family primarily between his son Brick and Maggie Brick’s wife?
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Adapted by David Mamet into a 1992 film which play follows the lives of four Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical acts to sell undesirable real estate to unwitting prospective buyers?
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
Who wrote the ‘Figaro plays’ – Le Barbier de Séville Le Mariage de Figaro and La Mère coupable?
PIERRE BEAUMARCHAIS
Vladimir and Estragon are the two main characters in which 1953 play by Samuel Beckett?
WAITING FOR GODOT
Born in Czechoslovakia which British playwright and screenwriter is married to Sabrina Guinness and was knighted in 1997?
TOM STOPPARD
Who wrote the comedy She Stoops To Conquer which was first performed in London in 1773?
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
Dylan Thomas’s play Under Milk Wood is set in which fictional small Welsh fishing village – the name was derived by reversing a well-known phrase?
LLAREGGUB
Which Jacobean dramatist whose career overlapped that of Shakespeare wrote The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil?
JOHN WEBSTER
An adaptation of a 1743 Commedia dell’arte style comedy which play by Richard Bean opened at the National Theatre in 2011 starring James Corden?
ONE MAN TWO GUVNORS
Which play by Anton Chekov follows the lives of Olga Irina and Masha?
THREE SISTERS
The Caucasian Chalk Circle Life of Galileo and Mother Courage and her Children are works by which German playwright and theatre director?
BERTHOLT BRECHT
Which semi-autobiographical play by Eugene O’Neill follows a turbulent day in the life of the Tyrone family in a Connecticut summer house in 1912?
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Who wrote Mourning Becomes Electra which is a retelling of the Oresteia by Aeschylus?
EUGENE O’NEILL
Mrs. Malaprop is a character in which 1775 play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan?
THE RIVALS
Which play by Terence Rattigan is based on a father’s fight to clear his son’s name after the boy is expelled from a Naval College for stealing a postal order?
THE WINSLOW BOY
Who wrote Volpone (Italian for ‘sly fox’) an early 17th century satire of greed and lust?
BEN JONSON
Riots stirred up by Irish nationalists occurred at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin during the opening performance in 1907 of which play by John Millington Synge?
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
Table Manners Living Together and Round and Round the Garden form which trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn?
THE NORMAN CONQUESTS
Which 1987 play by Caryl Churchill is a satirical study of the effects of the Big Bang on the London stock market and is largely written in rhyming couplets?
SERIOUS MONEY
The three great playwrights of 17th century France were Molière Corneille and which other dramatist the author of Phaedre?
JEAN RACINE
The plot of which Noel Coward play revolves around a divorced couple Amanda and Elyot who bump into each other on a honeymoon trip in Deauville with their respective new spouses?
PRIVATE LIVES
Which 1901 comedy by J.M. Barrie was so popular that a selection of individual tinned or boxed sweets produced by Nestlé was named after it?
QUALITY STREET
What is the name of Algernon’s imaginary friend in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest?
BUNBURY
A member of the Manchester School of dramatists whose best known work is the 1915 play Hobson’s Choice?
HAROLD BRIGHOUSE
The ‘Dublin trilogy’ by Sean O’Casey consists of The Shadow of a Gunman (1923) Juno and the Paycock (1924) and which 1926 play?
THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS
Which play by Michael Frayn is based around a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg that took place in 1941?
COPENHAGEN
Which tragedy by Christopher Marlowe includes a speech addressed to the spirit of Helen of Troy which begins with the line “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships”?
DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Who wrote The Romans in Britain which was first staged at the National Theatre during 1980 and subsequently became the focus of an unsuccessful private prosecution by Mary Whitehouse relating to the depiction of homosexual rape?
HOWARD BRENTON
Which play by Joe Orton follows the fortunes of two bank robbers and satirises religion and the integrity of the police force?
LOOT
The title of which play by David Hare about the events that led up to the 2003 Iraq War was inspired by Donald Rumsfeld’s response to looting in Baghdad?
STUFF HAPPENS
Which 1977 farce by Peter Nichols is based on an armed services entertainment unit in Southeast Asia in the late 1940s?
PRIVATES ON PARADE
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned” is a quotation from which play by William Congreve?
THE MOURNING BRIDE
The Blue Bird which was made into a 1940 film starring Shirley Temple is a 1908 play by which Belgian playwright?
MAURICE MAETERLINCK
Which farce by Brandon Thomas first performed in 1892 had an original London run of 1466 performances mostly at the Globe Theatre?
CHARLEY’S AUNT
What is the name of the hypochondriac who fears death and doctors in Moliere’s play La Malade Imaginaire?
ARGAN
Sir Robert Chilton Lord Goring and Mrs. Cheveley are characters in which 1895 Oscar Wilde play?
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
Who wrote the 2009 play Enron which covers the financial scandal and collapse of the Texas energy company?
LUCY PREBBLE
Our Town by Thornton Wilder is set in the fictional community of Grover’s Corners modeled on several towns in which US state?
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Which American playwright and feminist is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues?
EVE ENSLER
What is the name of Jimmy Porter’s wife in the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger?
ALISON
Which English dramatist of the Restoration period is best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer?
WILLIAM WYCHERLEY
The Dresser is based on Ronald Harwood’s experiences as personal assistant to which English Shakespearean actor who is the model for the character ‘Sir’ in the play?
DONALD WOLFIT
