Classic Plays

William Squire, Corin Redgrave, Derek Jacobi, and Trevor Nunn perform Shakespeare's play about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon. He loves to give parties and presents to friends, but when he cannot pay his creditors, his 'friends' refuse to help him, and he becomes a misanthropic hermit.

Wealthy and popular, Timon of Athens helps his friends, gives many gifts and holds a feast. After ignoring his true friends' warnings, Timon runs out of money and none of his 'friends' will help him. He runs away to a cave where he curses humanity, finds gold, funds someone to destroy Athens and dies.

Unique to this title is: a historical introduction, an overview, a study of themes, and a list of famous quotes. You may of course skip all of it and go straight to the main title if you do not want any spoilers and come back later to the beginning. William Shakespeare, the 16th-century English poet, playwright, and actor, is generally regarded as the best writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist.

Shakespeare writes about the plight of Romeo and Juliet with a lot of empathy and views their tragedy as a result of bad fate, rather than a problem with their characters. We sense from the very start that their relationship is doomed. Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as sincere and virtuous young people who are madly in love, but because of the feud between their families, their relationship has to end. As they won't even consider a separation, the only way out of the situation they find themselves in is by taking their own lives.

The Tempest has the ingredients of a cracking good story - magic, power, and love - and they kick up a storm. The magician Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, are banished by his jealous brother, Antonio, with the help of Alonso, the king of Naples. Prospero conjures up a tempest than ensures justice is done.

The Roman General Titus Andronicus returns from war with four prisoners who vow to take revenge against him. They rape and mutilate Titus' daughter and have his sons killed and banished. Titus kills two of them and cooks them into a pie, which he serves to their mother before killing her, too. The Roman emperor kills Titus, and Titus' last remaining son kills the emperor and takes his place.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is set in Denmark, and recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

Award-winning drama from SmartPass. The play is unabridged, with guided description to set the scene and fill in visual moments.

An Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who wrote it in response to the public outcry against his previous play, Ghosts, which challenged the hypocrisy of 19th-century morality. An Enemy of the People tells the story of a man who dares to speak an unpalatable truth and is punished for it. Ibsen uses the language of comic exaggeration through the mouth of his spokesman, the idealist Doctor Thomas Stockmann, who rejects all absolute principles of either wisdom or morality.

Girls will be boys as Shakespeare transplants the sophisticated denizens of the court into the starkly simle Forest of Arden. Witty clowns woo country wenches and philosphers wax melancholic as Rosiland follows her heart and Love conquers everybody!

Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist. His plays have been translated into every major language, and are the most performed ever. His work contains stunningly modern insight, witty jokes and soaring passion; it is an endless source of amazement and inspiration.

King Lear has three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and the youngest, the good Cordelia. The King asks his daughters how much they love him. and thrives on excessive empty words of flattery from two of them and bristles with anger when plain speaking Cordelia does not wish to participate in such falsity. The King banishes her - and thereafter unfolds the tragedy of his own undoing.

The dead do not sleep in Denmark. Thrice the vision of the suddenly departed king has haunted the night watchmen. Upon seeing his own son, prince Hamlet, the ghost calls him away to divulge most nefarious secret. This most noble king was murdered by his own brother, Hamlet's uncle, who now wears his crown and beds his bride. To the prince he charges with the unholy quest to avenge his death and kill his murderer. Young Hamlet, shocked and amazed, swears to do the bloody deed. Thus begins one of the greatest works by the greatest English author - William Shakespeare.

Rómeó er í öngum sínum yfir stúlku sem vill ekkert með hann hafa, svo vinur hans tekur hann með sér í veislu í von um að aðrar fallegar stúlkur muni leiða hugann frá henni. Það tekst svo sannarlega. Þegar Rómeó læsir augunum við unga Júlíu er ást við fyrstu sýn. Til allrar óhamingju uppgötva Rómeó og Júlía brátt að þau tilheyra fjölskyldum sem eiga í ættardeilum og verða þau að halda rómantík sinni leyndri. Frægasta ástarsaga sem skrifuð hefur verið, Rómeó og Júlía, er vísun í bæði hreina sanna ást og harmleik.

Based on a series of lectures by Leonard Peikoff and edited by Marlene Trollope, Discovering Great Plays provides the ability to understand, judge, and savor the values offered by great drama. Listeners will discover plot-theme as the key to a play; see Antigone as a great heroine and Iago as the darkest villain in literature; learn about the Cornelian hero; see how Schiller's "Grand Inquisitor" scene is the most dramatic and philosophic in all of theater; and discover Shaw's brilliance in presenting the genius against society.

Trojan Prince Troilus falls in love with Cressida as war rages around them. After vowing to be faithful, Cressida is traded to the Greek camp, where she then agrees to see another man. Troilus witnesses Cressida's unfaithfulness and vows to put more effort into the war. The play ends after further deaths on both sides and with no resolution in sight.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti recites "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare.

Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy with a relatively small cast by Shakespeare's standards. It is possibly one of Shakespeare's first plays, and some regard it as a relatively immature work written between 1587 and 1593. It may even be Shakespeare's first play. This production is abridged in plain English, producing a condensed version of the play without the complexity of Shakespeare's sometimes obtuse language. Though a comedy, the play focuses on the themes of love and friendship and the conflict between them.

King Henry IV suffers from illness, so his youngest son, Prince John, fights the rebels, while Prince Hal prepares to be king. Meanwhile, Hal's friend Falstaff causes trouble, recruits and speaks ill of Hal. Henry dies and Hal becomes King Henry V. He banishes Falstaff from court, ready to wage war on France.

The Merchant of Venice, though featuring its title character heavily, is most memorable for the Jewish merchant Shylock, who insists on a pound of flesh when a debt cannot be repaid in time.

Inevitably, love features as the money borrowed by Antonio, the Merchant of Venice, is for his friend, Bassiano, who wishes to woo the beautiful and talented Portia, who ultimately provides a clever solution and saves Antonio's life.