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A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time
1. KING LEAR by William Shakespeare (c. 1605–06)
2. OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles (c. 429 b.c.)
3. HAMLET by William Shakespeare (c. 1600–01)
4. ORESTEIA by Aeschylus (458 b.c.)
5. MACBETH by William Shakespeare (c. 1606)
6. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O’Neill (1956)
7. OTHELLO by William Shakespeare (1604)
8. WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett (1953)
9. MEDEA by Euripides (431 b.c.)
10. TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare (c. 1600–02)
11. A DOLL’S HOUSE by Henrik Ibsen (1879)
12. THE CHERRY ORCHARD by Anton Chekhov (1903)
13. BACCHAE by Euripides (c. 406 b.c.)
14. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde (1895)
15. ANTIGONE by Sophocles (441 b.c.)
16. TARTUFFE by Molière (1669)
17. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA by William Shakespeare (c. 1607)
18. MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN by Bertolt Brecht (1941)
19. LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes (411 b.c.)
20. DOCTOR FAUSTUS by Christopher Marlowe (c. 1588–93)
21. DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller (1949)
22. WOYZECK by Georg Büchner (1836)
23. VOLPONE, OR THE FOX by Ben Jonson (1606)
24. HENRY IV by William Shakespeare (c. 1596–97)
25. THE WAY OF THE WORLD by William Congreve (1700)
26. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Tennessee Williams (1947)
27. THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare (1611)
28. MAJOR BARBARA by George Bernard Shaw (1905)
29. ENDGAME by Samuel Beckett (1957)
30. S´AKUNTALA¯ by Ka¯lida¯sa (c. fifth century)
31. MISS JULIE by August Strindberg (1888)
32. THE PEONY PAVILION by Tang Xianzu (1598)
33. THE MISANTHROPE by Molière (1666)
34. THREE SISTERS by Anton Chekhov (1901)
35. LIFE IS A DREAM by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1635)
36. HEDDA GABLER by Henrik Ibsen (1891)
37. THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1777)
38. THE P L A Y B O Y OF THE WESTERN WORLD by John Millington Synge (1907)
39. THE ICEMAN COMETH by Eugene O’Neill (1946)
40. THE LOVE SUICIDES AT SONEZAKI by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1703)
41. EVERYMAN by Anonymous (c. 1500)
42. ANGELS IN AMERICA: A GAY FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES by Tony Kushner (1991–92)
43. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare (c. 1594–95)
44. SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR by Luigi Pirandello (1921)
45. MAN AND SUPERMAN by George Bernard Shaw (1903)
46. PHÈDRE by Jean Racine (1677)
47. ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare (c. 1595)
48. LOOK BACK IN ANGER by John Osborne (1956)
49. THE HOMECOMING by Harold Pinter (1965)
50. WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? by Edward Albee (1962)
51. THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS by Sean O’Casey (1926)
52. THE ALCHEMIST by Ben Jonson (1610)
53. TROJAN WOMEN by Euripides (415 b.c.)
54. SAINT JOAN by George Bernard Shaw (1923)
55. BLOOD WEDDING by Federico García Lorca (1933)
56. THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1784)
57. THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams (1944)
58. THE GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN by Bertolt Brecht (1943)
59. SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by Oliver Goldsmith (1773)
60. MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL by T. S. Eliot (1935)
61. THE BALD SOPRANO by Eugène Ionesco (1950)
62. THE GHOST SONATA by August Strindberg (1907)
63. THE INSPECTOR GENERAL by Nikolai Gogol (1836)
64. THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller (1953)
65. MARAT/SADE by Peter Weiss (1964)
66. TRANSLATIONS by Brian Friel (1980)
67. THE BEGGAR’S OPERA by John Gay (1728)
68. AMPHITRYON by Plautus (c. 186 b.c.)
69. NO EXIT by Jean-Paul Sartre (1944)
70. A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)
71. OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder (1938)
72. THE COUNTRY WIFE by William Wycherley (1675)
73. TRAVESTIES by Tom Stoppard (1974)
74. THE LOWER DEPTHS by Maxim Gorky (1902)
75. PRIVATE LIVES by Noël Coward (1930)
76. FOOL FOR LOVE by Sam Shepard (1983)
77. A FLEA IN HER EAR by Georges Feydeau (1907)
78. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS by David Mamet (1983)
79. KING UBU by Alfred Jarry (1896)
80. CLOUD NINE by Caryl Churchill (1979)
81. AT THE HAWK’S WELL by William Butler Yeats (1916)
82. ORPHEUS by Jean Cocteau (1926)
83. “MASTER HAROLD” . . . AND THE BOYS by Athol Fugard (1982)
84. THE WELL-CURB by Zeami Motokiyo (c. 1420)
85. THE OTHER SHORE by Gao Xingjian (1986)
86. THE LITTLE FOXES by Lillian Hellman (1939)
87. FENCES by August Wilson (1985)
88. THE DYBBUK by S. Ansky (1920)
89. THE VISIT by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1956)
90. THE WEAVERS by Gerhart Hauptmann (1892)
91. LE CID by Pierre Corneille (1637)
92. THE ROVER by Aphra Behn (1677)
93. AWAKE AND SING! by Clifford Odets (1935)
94. THE BROTHERS by Terence (160 b.c.)
95. THE BALCONY by Jean Genet (1956)
96. ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST by Dario Fo (1970)
97. THE HOSTAGE by Brendan Behan (1958)
98. THE HEIDI CHRONICLES by Wendy Wasserstein (1988)
99. THE KING’S THE BEST MAGISTRATE by Lope de Vega (c. 1620)
100. PETER PAN James M. Barrie (1904)
