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| − | Playwrights
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| − | ''Absurd Person Singular'' – '''Alan Ayckbourn''' (born 1939)
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| − | ''The Norman Conquests'' trilogy – ''Table Manners'', ''Living Together'', ''Round and Round the Garden'' by Alan Ayckbourn
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| − | ''Bedroom Farce'', ''Body Language'', ''Absent Friends'', ''Sisterly Feelings'' – Alan Ayckbourn
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| − | ''Antigone'' – play by '''Jean Anouilh'''
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| − | ''Becket'', ''Medee'' – Jean Anouilh
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| − | ''Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance'' – '''John Arden'''
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| − | ''The Admirable Crichton'' – '''JM Barrie''' (1860 – 1937)
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| − | ''The Little Minister'' – play by JM Barrie
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| − | ''Quality Street'' is a comedy in four acts by JM Barrie. The play was so popular that Quality Street chocolates and caramels were named after it
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| − | ''One Man, Two Guvnors'' is a play by '''Richard Bean''', an English adaptation of ''Servant of Two Masters'', a 1743 Commedia dell'arte comedy play by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni
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| − | '''Pierre Beaumarchais''' (1732 – 1799) Figaro plays are ''Le Barbier de Seville'', ''Le Mariage de Figaro'', and ''La Mere coupable'' (The Guilty Mother)
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| − | ''The Knight of the Burning Pestle'' is a play by '''Francis Beaumont''', first performed in 1607
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| − | ''Waiting for Godot'', subtitled ''A Tragicomedy in Two Acts'', is an absurdist play by '''Samuel Beckett''' (1906 – 1989), written in the late 1940s and first published in 1952. Beckett originally wrote the play in French. The plot concerns Vladimir (also called Didi) and Estragon (also called Gogo), who arrive at a pre-specified roadside location in order to await the arrival of someone named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon, who appear to be tramps, pass the time in conversation, and sometimes in conflict. Other characters include Pozzo and Lucky
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| − | ‘Nothing to be done’ – opening line of ''Waiting for Godot''
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| − | ''Endgame, Happy Days'' – Samuel Beckett
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| − | ''What Where'' – last play by Samuel Beckett
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| − | ''A Question of Attribution'' – '''Alan Bennett''' (born 1934). Based on Anthony Blunt's role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, personal art advisor to Queen Elizabeth II
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| − | ''An Englishman Abroad'' – Alan Bennett. Concerns meetings between Coral Brown and Guy Burgess
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| − | ''Writing Home'' – Alan Bennett
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| − | ''The Uncommon Reader'' – Alan Bennett, about the Queen chancing on a mobile library
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| − | ''The History Boys'' – Alan Bennett, is about a group of Sheffield sixth formers trying to get into Oxbridge during the eighties
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| − | ''Forty Years On'' – Alan Bennett’s first play in the West End
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| − | ''The Habit of Art'' – a 2009 play by Alan Bennett, centered on a fictional meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten while Britten is composing the opera ''Death in Venice''
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| − | ''The Madness of George III'' – Alan Bennett
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| − | ''GBH'' – play by '''Alan Bleasdale'''
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| − | ''A Man for All Seasons'' – '''Robert Bolt'''. The plot is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More
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| − | ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'', ''Life of Galileo'', ''Mother Courage and her Children'', ''The Private Lives of the Master Race'', ''Good Woman of Setzuan'' – '''Bertolt Brecht''' (1898 – 1956)
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| − | ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'' – play by Bertolt Brecht
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| − | ''The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonny'' – Bertolt Brecht. Born in Germany
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| − | ''The Romans in Britain'' – '''Howard Brenton'''
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| − | ''Hobson’s Choice'' – '''Harold Brighouse'''. The plot revolves around Willie Mossop, a gifted, but unappreciated shoemaker employed by the domineering Henry Horatio Hobson. He is bullied by Hobson's eldest daughter, Maggie into marrying her and setting up in a shop of his own
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| − | ''Boeing Boeing'' is a classic French farce by '''Marc Camoletti'''. The London production of the play opened at the Apollo Theatre in 1962 and then transferred to the Duchess Theatre in 1965. It closed after a highly successful run that stretched over seven years and 2035 performances. The play was revived in London in 2007, this time at the Comedy Theatre
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| − | ''Ivanov'' – first play by '''Anton Chekhov''' (1860 – 1904)
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| − | ''The Seagull'' – Anton Chekhov. Tragi-comedy about unrequited love, which revolves around the actress Arkadina
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| − | ''Uncle Vanya'', ''The Three Sisters'', ''The Cherry Orchard'' – Chekhov
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| − | Olga, Irina and Masha – Chekhov’s ''Three Sisters''
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| − | ''The Duel'' – Chekhov
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| − | ''Serious Money'', ''Cloud Nine'', ''Top Girls'' – '''Caryl Churchill'''
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| − | ''La Machine Infernale'' – '''Jean Cocteau'''
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| − | ''The Mourning Bride'' (1697), ''The Way of the World'' (1700) – plays by '''William Congreve'''
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| − | “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned” – from ''The Mourning Bride''
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| − | ''Love for Love'' – William Congreve
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| − | '''Pierre Corneille''' (1606 – 1684) was a French tragedian. He earned the valuable patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who was trying to promote classical tragedy along formal lines, but later quarrelled with him, especially over his best-known play ''Le Cid'' about a medieval Spanish warrior
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| − | ''Poor Little Rich Girl'' – '''Noel Coward''' (1899 – 1973)
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| − | ''Hay Fever'', ''Private Lives'', ''The Vortex'' – Noel Coward
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| − | ''Hay Fever'' – set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend
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| − | ''Private Lives'' – the plot revolves around a divorced couple, Amanda and Elyot, who bump into each other on a honeymoon trip in Deauville with their respective new spouses
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| − | ''Blithe Spirit'' (1941) is a comic play written by Noel Coward which takes its title from Shelley's poem ''To a Skylark'' (‘Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! / Bird thou never wert’). The action of the play centres on socialite Charles Condomine being haunted by the ghost of his first wife Elvira following a seance
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| − | ''There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner'' – Noel Coward
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| − | ''Design for Living'' – Noel Coward
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| − | ''The Family Reunion'' – '''TS Eliot'''
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| − | ''The Vagina Monologues'' – play written by '''Eve Ensler'''
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| − | ''Accidental Death of an Anarchist'' – '''Dario Fo''' (born 1926)
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| − | Dario Fo's anti-Iraq war play ''Peace Mom'' featured Frances de la Tour as mother Cindy Sheehan
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| − | ''Alphabetical Order'' – '''Michael Frayn''' (born 1933)
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| − | ''Copenhagen'' is a play by Michael Frayn, based around an event that occurred in Copenhagen in 1941, a meeting between the physicists Bohr and Heisenberg
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| − | ''Headlong'', ''Clouds'', ''Donkey’s Years'', ''Noises Off'' – plays by Michael Frayn
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| − | ''Noises Off'' – comedy about a touring theatre company’s struggle to stage a farce
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| − | ''The Miracle Worker'' – play by '''William Gibson''', based on the work of Helen Keller
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| − | ''The Government Inspector'' (also translated as ''The Inspector General'') (1836) – '''Nikolai''' '''Gogol'''
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| − | ''The Lion in Winter'' is a 1966 Broadway play by '''James Goldman'''
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| − | ''She Stoops to Conquer'' – '''Oliver Goldsmith'''
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| − | ''She Stoops to Conquer'' was initially titled ''Mistakes of a Night''
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| − | ''Six Degrees of Separation'' is a 1990 play by '''John Guare'''. It explores the existential premise that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else in the world by a chain of no more than six acquaintances
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| − | ''Slag'' – first play by '''David Hare'''
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| − | ''Pravda'', ''Plenty'', ''Licking Hitler'', ''The Absence of War'' – David Hare
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| − | ''The Judas Kiss'' – David Hare. Concerns Oscar Wilde’s scandal
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| − | ''Skylight'' – David Hare
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| − | ''Stuff Happens'' is a play by David Hare, written in response to the Iraq War. The title is inspired by Donald Rumsfeld's response to widespread looting in Baghdad
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| − | ''Billy Elliot, The Pitmen Painters'' – plays by '''Lee Hall'''
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| − | ''Cooking with Elvis'' is dark comedy by Lee Hall
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| − | ''Rope'' – play by '''Patrick Hamilton'''
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| − | ''The Dresser'' – '''Ronald Harwood'''
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| − | ''Tom & Viv'' is a play by British playwright, '''Michael Hastings''', which tells the story of the relationship between the American poet, T. S. Eliot, and his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot
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| − | ''The Little Foxes'', ''The Children’s Hour'' – '''Lillian Hellman'''
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| − | ''The Fifth Column'' – only full-length play by '''Ernest Hemingway'''
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| − | ''The Woman in Black'' – play based on a '''Susan Hill''' novel
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| − | ''Ghosts'', ''Hedda Gabler'' – '''Henrik Ibsen''' (1828 – 1906)
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| − | ''A Doll’s House'' – Ibsen. Nora Helmer is the tragic heroine
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| − | ''Catalina'' – first work by Ibsen
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| − | ''The Wild Duck'', ''The'' ''Master Builder'' – Ibsen
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| − | ''An Enemy of the People'' – play by Ibsen
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| − | ''Peer Gynt'' – Ibsen. His sweetheart is Solveig
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| − | ''The Alchemist'' – '''Ben Jonson''' (1572 – 1637). Follows three confidence tricksters
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| − | ''Volpone'', or ''The Fox'', is a black comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is among the finest Jacobean comedies
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| − | ''Bartholomew Fair'', ''A Tale of a Tub'' – Ben Jonson
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| − | ''Every Man in his Humour'' – Ben Johnson
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| − | ''Exiles'' – '''James Joyce'''’s only play
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| − | ''Blasted'', ''Cleansed'', ''4.48 Psychosis'' – '''Sarah Kane'''
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| − | ''Chimerica'' is a play by the British dramatist '''Lucy Kirkwood'''. It draws its title from the term Chimerica, referring to the predominance of China and America in modern geopolitics
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| − | ''Up the Junction'' – '''Ken Loach'''
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| − | ''Blood Wedding'', ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' – plays by '''Federico Garcia Lorca'''
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| − | '''Maurice Maeterlinck''' (1862 – 1949) was a Belgian poet (born in Ghent), playwright, and essayist writing in French. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life
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| − | ''Pelleas and Melisande'' is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893
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| − | ''The Blue Bird'' – Maurice Maeterlinck
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| − | ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' a 1984 Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play by '''David Mamet'''. A group of Chicago real-estate salesmen try to sell worthless Florida swampland
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| − | ''Speed-the-Plow'' – David Mamet satire about Hollywood
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| − | ''Tamburlaine the Great'', ''The Jew of Malta'' – '''Christopher Marlowe''' (1564 – 1593)
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| − | ''The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus'' – Christopher Marlowe. Includes the line “the face that launched a thousand ships”. Helen of Troy, Lucifer and the Pope all appear. Published in 1604. ''Faust'' enters a pact with the devil, pledging his soul in exchange for earthly power and knowledge and ''24 years'' of service
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| − | ''Dido, Queen of Carthage'' – first play by Christopher Marlowe
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| − | ''Edward II'', ''The Massacre at Paris'' – Christopher Marlowe
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| − | ''The Factory Girls'' – '''Frank McGuinness'''
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| − | ''Borstal Boy'' is a play adapted by '''Frank McMahon''' from the 1958 autobiographical novel of Irish nationalist Brendan Behan of the same title
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| − | ''The Crucible'' – '''Arthur Miller''' (1915 – 2005), inspired by McCarthy witch hunts
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| − | Willy Loman – title character in ''Death of a Salesman''
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| − | ''A View from the Bridge'', ''All My Sons'' – Arthur Miller
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| − | ''After the Fall'' is a deeply personal view of Arthur Miller's own experiences during his marriage to Marilyn Monroe (1956–1961)
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| − | ''Resurrection Blues'' – Arthur Miller
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| − | ''Le Malade Imaginaire'' (1673), ''Le Misanthrope'' (1666) – '''Moliere''' (1622 – 1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
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| − | ''Dom Juan'' is French play based on the tale of Don Juan, by Moliere. It is the last part in Moliere's trilogy of hypocrisy, after ''The School for Wives'' and ''Tartuffe'' (the hypocrite). It was first performed in 1665
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| − | ''The Bourgeois Gentleman'' – Moliere. The music was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully
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| − | Moliere had his own troupe of actors
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| − | ''Privates on Parade'' – farce by '''Peter Nichols'''
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| − | ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' – Peter Nichols
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| − | ''The Shadow of a Gunman'' is a 1923 play by '''Sean O'Casey''' (1880 – 1964). It centres on the mistaken identity of a building tenant who is thought to be an IRA assassin. It is the first in O'Casey's ‘Dublin Trilogy’ – the other two being ''Juno and the Paycock'' (1924) and ''The Plough and the Stars'' (1926)
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| − | ''A Moon for the Misbegotten'' – '''Eugene O’Neill''' (1888 – 1953)
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| − | ''The Emperor Jones'' by Eugene O’Neill is about an African-American killer who escapes from prison to a Caribbean island where he sets himself up as emperor
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| − | Theodore Hickman – title character in ''The Iceman Cometh''
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| − | ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' – Eugene O’Neill. The story is a retelling of the ''Oresteia'' by Aeschylus
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| − | ''Long Day’s Journey into Night'' – Eugene O’Neill, follows a turbulent day in the life of the Tyrone family in a Connecticut summer house in 1912
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| − | ''Loot'' – '''Joe Orton''' (1933 – 1967). The play is an extremely dark farce which satirizes the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force
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| − | ''What the Butler Saw'', ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' – Joe Orton
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| − | Joe Orton was murdered by Kenneth Halliwell
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| − | ''Look Back in Anger'' – '''John Osborne''' (1929 – 1994). Main character is Jimmy Porter
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| − | ''Inadmissible Evidence'', ''A Patriot for me'', ''Deva Vu'' – John Osborne plays
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| − | ''The Entertainer'' – John Osborne. Central character is Archie Rice
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| − | '''Harold Pinter''' (1930 – 2008) was famous for his ‘Pinter pause’ which presents a subtly elliptical dialogue; often the primary things characters should address is replaced by ellipsis or dashes
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| − | ''The Dumb Waiter'' – Harold Pinter. Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment
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| − | ''The Homecoming'' – Harold Pinter. Play about the disruption caused to an all-male household when a long-absent son brings his glamorous wife home to meet the family
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| − | ''The Hothouse'' – Harold Pinter
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| − | ''Betrayal'' – Harold Pinter. Based on his affair with Joan Bakewell. Charts a love triangle in reverse
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| − | Davies is a tramp in ''The Caretaker'', by Harold Pinter
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| − | ''Old Times'' – Harold Pinter
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| − | Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for ''The French Lieutenant’s Woman'', ''The Servant'', ''The Go-Between'', and ''The Last Tycoon''
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| − | ''Blue Remembered Hills'', ''Brimstone and Treacle'' – '''Dennis Potter''' (1935 – 1995)
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| − | ''Lipstick on Your Collar'' – Dennis Potter
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| − | ''Enron'' – play by '''Lucy Prebble'''
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| − | ''An Inspector Calls'', ''I Have Been Here Before'' – '''JB Priestley'''
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| − | ''An Inspector Calls'' takes place on a single night in 1912, focusing on the prosperous middle-class Birling family, who are visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole
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| − | ''Kiss of the Spider Woman'' – '''Manuel Puig''' play about two very different men who share a cell in a South American jail. Manuel Puig was born in Argentina
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| − | '''Jean Racine''' (1639 – 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the ‘big three’ of 17th century France, along with Moliere and Corneille
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| − | ''Phaedra'', ''Berenice'' – Jean Racine
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| − | ''Britannicus'' – Jean Racine
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| − | ''French Without Tears, Flare Path'', ''Cause Célèbre'' – '''Terence Rattigan''' (1911 – 1977)
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| − | ''The Winslow Boy'' (1946), ''The Browning Version'' (1948), ''The Deep Blue Sea'' (1952) and ''Separate Tables'' (1954) – plays by Terence Rattigan
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| − | ''The Winslow Boy'' is based on a father's fight to clear his son's name after the boy is expelled from Osborne Naval College for stealing a five-shilling postal order
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| − | ''The Cut'' – play by '''Mark Ravenhill'''
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| − | ''Shopping and Fucking'' – Mark Ravenhill
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| − | ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' – play by '''Edmond Rostand'''. Concentrates on Cyrano's love for the beautiful Roxane
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| − | Bergerac wrote proto-science fiction novels in the 17th century. Bergerac is a market town in the Dordogne
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| − | ''In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)'' – '''Sarah Ruhl'''
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| − | ''Educating Rita'', ''Blood Brothers'', ''John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert'', ''Shirley Valentine'' – written by '''Willy Russell'''
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| − | ''Mary Stuart'' is a play by '''Friedrich Schiller''' that depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots
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| − | ''Equus'' – '''Peter Shaffer'''. Stable lad is Alan Strang
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| − | ''The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' is a 1964 theatre piece by Peter Shaffer that dramatizes the relation of two worlds entering in a conflict by portraying two characters: Atahuallpa Inca and Francisco Pizarro
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| − | ''Amadeus'' – Peter Shaffer
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| − | ''Major Barbara'' – '''George Bernard Shaw''' (1856 – 1950). Major in the Salvation Army, based at a shelter in West Ham
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| − | ''Pygmalion'' was first performed in Vienna. The part of Eliza Doolittle was written for Mrs Patrick Campbell
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| − | ''Dark Lady of the Sonnets'' – George Bernard Shaw
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| − | ''The Doctor’s Dilemma'' – George Bernard Shaw
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| − | ''The Apple Cart'' – George Bernard Shaw
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| − | ''Intelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism'' – George Bernard Shaw. First Pelican book, 1937
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| − | George Bernard Shaw's ''Saint Joan'' was written with Sybil Thorndike in mind
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| − | ''Mrs Warren’s Profession'' – George Bernard Shaw. Mrs. Warren was a brothel-keeper
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| − | ''John Bull’s Other Island'' – George Bernard Shaw
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| − | ''Back to Methuselah'' – George Bernard Shaw
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| − | Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Academy Award (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film ''Pygmalion''
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| − | ''The Rivals'', ''The School for Scandal'' – '''Richard Sheridan''' (1751 – 1816)
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| − | Anthony Absolute and Lydia Languish are characters in ''The Rivals''. Mrs. Malaprop is Lydia’s guardian
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| − | ''The Critic'' – Sheridan
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| − | ''Barefoot in the Park'', ''The Odd Couple'', the ''Eugene trilogy'' (comprised of ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'', ''Biloxi Blues'', and ''Broadway Bound''), ''Sweet Charity'', ''Promises'', ''The'' ''Out-of-Towners'', ''Murder by Death'', ''The Goodbye Girl'' – '''Neil Simon''' (born 1927)
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| − | ''A Few Good Men'' – '''Aaron Sorkin'''
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| − | '''Tom Stoppard''' (born 1937) is an Academy Award winning British playwright. Born in Czechoslovakia as as Tomáš Straussler, he is famous for plays such as ''The Coast of Utopia'', ''The Real Thing'' and ''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'', and also for co-writing screenplays for ''Brazil'' and ''Shakespeare in Love''
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| − | ''Jumpers'' – Tom Stoppard. Explores and satirizes the field of academic philosophy
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| − | ''The Invention of Love'' – Tom Stoppard. About AE Housman
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| − | ''Rock ‘n’ Roll'' – Tom Stoppard. The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The underground Czech group The Plastic People of the Universe are held up as an ideal of resistance to Communism
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| − | ''Arcadia'' is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge
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| − | ''The Father'', ''Miss Julie'', ''To Damascus'', ''A Dream Play'', ''The Ghost Sonata'' – '''August Stringberg''' (1849 – 1912)
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| − | '''John Millington Synge''' is best known for the play ''The Playboy of the Western World'', which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey theatre
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| − | ''Riders to the Sea'' – John Millington Synge. Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams made an almost verbatim setting of the play as an opera using the same title
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| − | Lord Dundreary is a character of the 1858 British play ''Our American Cousin'' by '''Tom Taylor'''. Gave his name to the form of exaggeratedly bushy sideburns called dundreary whiskers
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| − | ''Charley’s Aunt'' – a farce in three acts written by '''Brandon Thomas'''. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1466 performances
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| − | ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 play for BBC radio by '''Dylan Thomas''', later adapted for the stage. Set in the fictional small Welsh fishing village Llareggub
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| − | “To begin at the beginning” – opening line of ''Under Milk Wood''
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| − | ''Ralph Roister Doister'' is a comic play by '''Nicholas Udall''', generally regarded as the first comedy to be written in the English language, c. 1553
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| − | ''Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell'' – '''Keith Waterhouse'''
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| − | ''The Duchess of Malfi'' is a macabre, tragic play, written by the English dramatist '''John Webster''' (c. 1580 – c. 1634) and first performed in 1614 at the Globe Theatre in London, and published for the first time in 1623
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| − | ''The Kitchen Sink'', ''Jumpers for Goalposts'' – plays by '''Tom Wells'''
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| − | ''Chicken Soup with Barley'', ''Roots'', ''The Kitchen'', ''The Friends'' – plays by '''Arnold Wesker'''
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| − | Lady Bracknell is Algernon’s aunt in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', ''A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' – '''Oscar Wilde'''
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| − | Lady Bracknell liked cucumber sandwiches. Jack Worthing’s real name is Ernest
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| − | Bunbury – imaginary friend of Algernon in ''The Importance of Being Earnest''
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| − | ''A Woman of no Importance'' – Oscar Wilde. Chief character is Mrs Arbuthnot
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| − | ''Lady Windermere’s Fan'' is subtitled ''A Play about a Good Woman''
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| − | ''Salome'' – Oscar Wilde. Originally written in French. Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley
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| − | ''Our Town'' – play by '''Thornton Wilder''', set in the fictional community of Grover's Corners, modeled on several New Hampshire towns
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| − | ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' – Thornton Wilder
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| − | ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' – '''Tennessee Williams''' (1911 – 1983). Desire is a district of New Orleans
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| − | ''The Glass Menagerie'' – Tennessee Williams. Set in 1930s St Louis. About a mother’s obsessive efforts to marry off her daughter
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| − | ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a husband and wife, Brick and Maggie (‘The Cat’) Pollitt
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| − | ''The Night of the Iguana'' – Tennessee Williams. Main character is the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon
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| − | ''The Rose Tattoo'', Tennessee Williams. Set in a Sicilian immigrant community in New Orleans
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| − | ''Moon for the Misbegotten'', ''Orpheus Descending'' – Tennessee Williams
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| − | ''Summer and Smoke'' – Tennessee Williams
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| − | '''William Wycherley''' was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays ''The Country Wife'' and ''The Plain Dealer''
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| − | London theatres
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| − | Richard Sadler opened a ‘Musick House’ in 1683 and the name Sadler's Wells originates from his name and the rediscovery of monastic springs on his property
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| − | Sadler's Wells Theatre is a major performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the most recent of six theatres that have existed on the same site since 1683
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| − | Aldwych Theatre was built as a pair with the Waldorf Theatre (now called the Novello Theatre), both being designed by W.G.R. Sprague. It opened in 1905
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| − | Prince of Wales Theatre is on Coventry Street. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937
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| − | National Theatre – Olivier, Littleton and Cottesloe (to be renamed the Dorfman Theatre)
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| − | The Royal National Theatre (generally known as the National Theatre) in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company. From its foundation in 1963 until 1976, the company was based at the Old Vic theatre in Waterloo
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| − | National Theatre was designed by architects Sir Denys Lasdun and Peter Softley and contains three stages, which opened individually between 1976 and 1977
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| − | Artistic directors of the National Theatre – Laurence Olivier (1963–1973), Peter Hall (1973–1988), Richard Eyre (1988–1997), Trevor Nunn (1997–2003), Nicholas Hytner (2003–2015), Rufus Norris (2015–)<sup>[</sup>
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| − | In 1963, Kenneth Tynan was appointed as the new National Theatre Company's literary manager
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| − | Old Vic – founded in 1818 by the actor William Barrymore as the Royal Coburg Theatre. In 1833 it was renamed the Royal Victorian Theatre after the heir to the throne Princess Victoria. In 1880, under the ownership of Emma Cons, it became The Royal Victoria Hall And Coffee Tavern
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| − | The original Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by the playing company to which Shakespeare belonged, using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, that had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. It was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a performance of ''Henry the Eighth''. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching.
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| − | At the instigation of Sam Wanamaker, a new Globe theatre was built according to an Elizabethan plan. The structural design was carried out by Buro Happold with Pentagram as the architects. It opened in 1997 under the name ‘Shakespeare's Globe Theatre’ and now stages plays every summer. Mark Rylance was appointed as the first artistic director of the modern Globe in 1995. Dominic Dromgoole took over in 2006
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| − | At the Globe Theatre, members of the general public who paid 1 penny apiece to watch the play while standing in the yard or ‘pit’ were sometimes referred to as ‘stinkards’
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| − | Different coloured flags were used to advertise the themes of plays which were to be performed at the Globe Theatre. A black flag indicated a tragedy, a white flag indicated a comedy and a red flag indicated a History
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| − | Vaudeville theatre – on The Strand
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| − | Young Vic theatre opened in 1970
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| − | Alelphi Theatre – founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil (‘Without Compare’), by merchant John Scott. In 1819 it was reopened under its present name, which was adopted from the Adelphi Buildings opposite, on the Strand
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| − | Coliseum Theatre (also known as the London Coliseum) is on St. Martin's Lane. It opened in 1904, designed by theatrical architect Frank Matcham (designer of the London Palladium), for impresario Oswald Stoll
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| − | Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden. Theatrical producer Donald Albery formed the Donmar company in 1953. The Donmar became an independent producing house in 1992 with Sam Mendes as artistic director
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| − | Tricycle Theatre is located on Kilburn High Road. During the last 30 years, the Tricycle has been presenting plays reflecting the cultural diversity of its community, as well as political work
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| − | Almeida Theatre is located, off Upper Street, in Islington
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| − | Blackfriars Theatre was the name given to two separate theatres located in the former Blackfriars Dominican priory in the City of London during the Renaissance. The second Blackfriars was an indoor theatre built at the instigation of James Burbage, father of Prince of Wales Theatre in Coventry Street was extensively refurbished in 2004 by Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner
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| − | Regional theatres
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| − | Bristol Old Vic theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England
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| − | Swan Theatre – in Stratford-upon-Avon
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| − | Steven Joseph theatre – Scarborough, was the first theatre in the round in Britain
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| − | Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea. The theatre is located near Porthcurno, four miles from Land's End. The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade
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| − | Thorndike theatre – Leatherhead
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| − | Annie Horniman established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester
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| − | Abbey Theatre was founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and W.B.Yeats in 1899
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| − | Apollo Theatre in New York is the most famous club associated almost exclusively with black performers
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| − | The original ''The'' ''Mousetrap'' was a 30-minute radio play by Agatha Christie, ''Three Blind Mice'', presented by the BBC in honor of the late Queen Mary's (consort of George V) 80th birthday, in 1947
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| − | ''The Mousetrap'' – started at Ambassadors Theatre in 1952, now at St. Martin’s
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| − | Monkswell Manor guest house – setting for ''The Mousetrap''
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| − | The original West End cast of ''The Mousetrap'' included Richard Attenborough as Detective Sergeant Trotter and his wife Sheila Sim as Mollie Ralston
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| − | Stephen Fry was appearing in Simon Gray’s ''Cell Mates'' when he disappeared in 1995
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| − | ''Beyond the Fringe'' was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. It played in Britain's West End and on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s
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| − | The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. It became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air''. Inspired by the Folies Bergeres of Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies were conceived and mounted by Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly at the suggestion of his then-wife, the entertainer Anna Held
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| − | Spike Milligan appeared in Frank Dunlop's production of the play ''Oblomov''
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| − | ''Anyone for Denis?'' – written by John Wells, who plays Denis Thatcher
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| − | ''I’ll Say She Is'' – Broadway debut of Marx Brothers
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| − | ''Toad of Toad Hall'' – stage version of ''The'' ''Wind in the Willows'', adapted by AA Milne
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| − | Theatre of the Absurd – plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of playwrights from the late 1940s to the 1960s, as well as the theatre which has evolved from their work
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| − | Playwrights commonly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd include Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Edward Albee
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| − | Theatre of the Absurd – term coined by Martin Esslin
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| − | Closet drama – a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group
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| − | Proscenium theatre – a theatre space whose primary feature is a large archway (the proscenium arch) at or near the front of the stage
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| − | Fourth Wall – originally defined by Denis Diderot as the wall that separates a theatrical performance from the audience. If a character addresses the audience directly, he ‘breaks’ the wall
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| − | George Spelvin, Georgette Spelvin, and Georgina Spelvin are the traditional pseudonyms used in programs in American theatre by actors who don't want to be credited or whose names would otherwise appear twice because they are playing more than one role in a production
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| − | Walter Plinge is used in London theatre when a part has not been cast, an actor is playing two parts or an actor does not want his or her name in the programme
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| − | Tony Awards – named in honour of Antoinette Perry. American theatre awards
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| − | French National Theatre awards – named after Moliere
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