Drama books

Tennessee Williams was a giant of 20th-century American theatre, explains literary scholar Ahmed Honeini, whose new book unpicks Williams' preoccupation with domestic family drama. Here, Honeini selects five key books—landmark plays, personal memoirs and an influential biography—that illuminate the life of the great playwright.

The philosopher and cultural critic recently made a foray into drama when he reworked Sophocle's Antigone—not out of admiration for the original, but to examine the "stupid and morally problematic" character at its heart. Here he selects five plays he admires—but declines to see performed.

Shakespearean scholar Emma Smith picks her five favourite plays by the Bard, and controversially argues that not only are some of his plays just too long, but also that the most moving moments in Shakespeare's oeuvre are where we might not expect them

Oscar Wilde cultivated an image of himself as an idle genius, dashing off masterpieces with a lazy brilliance. But below the glittering linguistic surface of his works, suggests Sos Eltis, lies an anarchic politics and a phenomenal analysis of power.

Samuel Beckett remains one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century. Ruthlessly experimental, his plays, novels, and poems represent a sustained attack on the realist tradition. Dr Mark Nixon looks at the mutating nature of Beckett's literary style and explains why he didn't choose Waiting for Godot.

French theater is appreciated as much in reading as in performance. Princeton University's Florent Masse offers us a reading from the point of view of teaching theater. How did the great men of theater—such as Jouvet, Copeau, or Vitez—build their learning? Discover the principles and references that guide the best directors. (You can also read this interview in the original French)