"All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves." Here we find the very essence of Chekhov

Absurd, Dark, Ironic, Melancholy, Pathos, Realist theater

Paula Vogel has reaped success from risk, taking on controversial subjects such as AIDS (notably in 'The Baltimore Waltz,' for which she won an Obie in 1992), gay parenting, pornography, and prostitution. It seems unlikely, but it was her most controversial subject matter that brought her the most ma

Contemporary plays, Feminist, Feminist theater, Gay/lesbian theater, Intimate, Layered, Political, Queer, Self-reflection, Sophisticated, Witty

Playwright Brian Friel grew up in Northern Ireland and attended Ireland's national seminary, Saint Patrick's College. But, instead of becoming a priest, took up teaching and writing. In the late 1950s, his first radio plays aired on the BBC and he began to publish short fiction. By the mid-1960s,

Classical, Political, Quiet

As Anglo-Irish tensions tore his country apart, William Butler Yeats sought to give Ireland songs of identity rooted in the island's particular history and myth. Invoking a strong sense of place and folk tradition, Yeats attempted to counter the rapid growth of industry and materialism that he saw as

Lyrical, Modernist poetry, Mythic, Rebel, Sublime, Tragic