Frustrated at the ongoing violence of the civil war, Lysistrata decides that the women of Athens must take matters into their own hands. Against heartfelt resistance, she eventually persuades the female population that the only way to make peace is to stop making love: they will deny their husbands sex until a treaty has been signed.

Highly accessible and vibrant new translations by two of Britain's most important dramatic talents.

Fraud, theft, extortion and sexual corruption are the themes in this eighteenth-century masterpiece of French comedy.

Kenneth McLeish's stunning translations of three plays exploring the Trojan War, by one of the great Athenian dramatists. Each play shows the aftermath of war from a different standpoint. Women of Troy is set amongst a group of captives waiting to be shipped from Troy as slaves - Queen Hecuba is their comforter but in Hecuba she is driven to the edge of insanity by her own great personal loss. Helen takes place seven years after the end of the War. In Egypt - treated as a backwater, far from 'real' events - Helen waits anxiously for her husband Menelaus to rescue her. _x000D_ One...

Jonathan Croall's book offers an intimate and absorbing picture of how a team of world-class theatrical artists brought one of the masterpieces of Greek theater to the stage. This new edition includes an extra chapter on the production's visit to the ancient theater of Epidaurus in Greece, and a new foreword by Peter Hall.

Two plays from Gotthold Lessing and translated into English by Anthony Meech and Ernest Bell. These plays contrast one another. Sara is a play based on tragedy and Minna Von Barnhelm is a comedy. A good base to start exploring the different genres of Lessing.

A tale of obsessive love that leads nowhere and a flirtation that brings disaster.

Punishment without Revenge is a dark and thrilling drama, an audacious blend of unbearable tension and delicious comedy, which both terrifies and delights. Regarded as the greatest tragedy of the Spanish Golden Age and the finest play of its presiding genius, Lope de Vega, this elegant work is set in the dangerous and glamorous world of Renaissance Italy.
The Duke of Ferrara has lived a wild and unconventional life. An infamous womanizer, his only son, Federico, is a bastard whom he dreams will one day succeed him. When his subjects demand that he marry and provide them with the...

When the seemingly perfect Tartuffe ingratiates himself with the wealthy Orgon and his mother Madame Pernelle, he is soon welcomed into their home and into their lives. His combination of charm, respectability and religious authority proves so irresistible that he is eventually promised the hand of Orgon's daughter in marriage. But the rest of Orgon's family have grave doubts - is there more to Tartuffe than meets the eye? When the threat of eviction for the family and imprisonment for Orgon become apparent, is it all too late to find out? This hilarious and irreverent whirlwind of lies,...