Title search results
Showing 1 - 9 of 9 items
Aias
By Sophocles. 2015
Sophocles' play is a famous retelling of Aias's (Ajax's) demise. After the armor is awarded to Odysseus, Aias feels so…
insulted that he wants to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena intervenes and clouds his mind and vision, and he goes to a flock of sheep and slaughters them, imagining they are the Achaean leaders, including Odysseus and Agamemnon. When he comes to his senses, covered in blood, he realizes that what he has done has diminished his honor, and decides that he prefers to kill himself rather than live in shame.Great Stories
By Luis Huizzi, Mohamed Bouzitoune. 2018
South of Calcutta, in one of the dim curves of the Hugli River, before inserting its dense wet arms into…
the clay sand, several children played with innocent joy as they dipped their tiny bodies in one of the nearby public fountains. The old city was cut off by the warm gray air that cut out the profiles of its distant buildings. The afternoon progressed, heavy as if wanting to glimpse his presence in an unappealable appointment with the night, still distant waiting for her in his warm and dark arms. A little farther on, on one of the almost invisible edges of the Garden Reach, was a scattered rustic farmhouse; its alleyways of humid earth, let escape a strange smell, that at times seemed to flee from the earth and to meet with the dirty puddles, that abounded for those days of spring. Women, dressed in rustic, light-colored saris, emerged for moments in the courtyards, barely divided by a few boards and cartons. Going up the most imperceptible alley, and after passing by the edge of the hill, you could see a ramshackle and chaotic hut. It was difficult to perceive the place of the entrance and, how much ...The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics)
By Thornton Wilder. 2003
A timeless statement about human foibles...and human endurance, The Skin of Our Teeth is Thornton Wilder’s brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning play,…
now reissued with a beautiful new cover and updated afterword by Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder. Time magazine called The Skin of Our Teeth "a sort of Hellzapoppin' with brains," as it broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in Our Town to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war—by the skin of their teeth. Witty, clever, and provocative, The Skin of Our Teeth showcases Wilder’s storytelling genius and his extraordinary talents at delving deep into the human psyche.Shooting Martha
By David Thewlis. 2021
'A riotously good novel, witty and earnest, brimming with sharply drawn characters and creeping suspense. David Thewlis is a fabulous…
writer' Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall BonesCelebrated director Jack Drake can't get through his latest film (his most personal yet) without his wife Martha's support. The only problem is, she's dead...When Jack sees Betty Dean - actress, mother, trainwreck - playing the part of a crazed nun on stage in an indie production of The Devils, he is struck dumb by her resemblance to Martha. Desperate to find a way to complete his masterpiece, he hires her to go and stay in his house in France and resuscitate Martha in the role of 'loving spouse'.But as Betty spends her days roaming the large, sunlit rooms of Jack's mansion - filled to the brim with odd treasures and the occasional crucifix - and her evenings playing the part of Martha over scripted video calls with Jack, she finds her method acting taking her to increasingly dark places. And as Martha comes back to life, she carries with her the truth about her suicide - and the secret she guarded until the end.A darkly funny novel set between a London film set and a villa in the south of France.A mix of Vertigo and Jonathan Coe, written by a master storyteller.PRAISE FOR DAVID THEWLIS'S FICTION 'David Thewlis has written an extraordinarily good novel, which is not only brilliant in its own right, but stands proudly beside his work as an actor, no mean boast' Billy Connolly'Hilarious and horror-filled' Francesca Segal, Observer'A fine study in character disintegration... Very funny' David Baddiel, The Times'Exquisitely written with a warm heart and a wry wit... Stunning' Elle'Queasily entertaining' Financial Times'A sharp ear for dialogue and a scabrously satiric prose style' Daily Mail'Laugh-out-loud, darkly intelligent' Publishers Weekly'This is far more than an actor's vanity project: Thewlis has talent' KirkusEnemy of the People: A Play In Five Acts
By Henrik Ibsen. 2009
Environmentalist, activist, and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contributes a foreword to this Skyhorse edition of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen&’s…
renowned 1882 play. Regarded as one of the foremost playwrights of the nineteenth century, Henrik Ibsen tells the story of the idealist Doctor Thomas Stockmann, the medical officer of a recently opened spa in a small town in southern Norway, who finds that the water is seriously contaminated. He notifies members of the community and initially receives support and thanks for the discovery. Threatened by the possible impact of such a revelation, his brother, the town mayor, conspires with local politicians and the newspaper to suppress the story and pressure Dr. Stockmann to retract his statements. At a public meeting, an attempt is made to keep Dr. Stockmann from speaking, but he launches into a tirade condemning the corruption of the town and the tyranny of the majority. Finding his speech offensive, he is shouted down by the masses and reviled as "an enemy of the people." In his foreword, Kennedy alerts readers to the undeniable fact that the persecution of those who tell uncomfortable truths, which Ibsen described over one hundred years ago, continues to this day and is as relevant now as ever. We face environmental deregulation and degradation, politicians in lobbyists&’ pockets, attacks on facts that are agreed upon by reputable scientists, corporate funded and controlled research, and attempts to impede and suppress whistleblowers. The battle continues and Kennedy joins Ibsen on the front lines.Antigone
By Sophocles. 2015
Sophocles addresses themes of civil disobedience, fidelity, and love for family; and questions which law is greater: the gods' or…
man's--in this play that challenged many established mores of Ancient Greece.Dial L for Latch-Key: The Radio Play
By Scott Fivelson. 2010
She tried to dial M for murder, but instead she accidentally dialed L for latch-key... A plotting husband who strongly…
resembles Ray Milland... A framed wife as elegant as Grace Kelly... An Inspector straight out of Monty Python... Hitchcock would be spinning in his grave if he weren't suiting up for his cameo.Suspenseful, witty, and romantic, this one-act play is a lively satire of the films of Alfred Hitchcock.Faust: A Tragedy (First Avenue Classics ™)
By Johann Wolfgang Goethe. 2018
Faust, a once-godly scholar, is beginning to suspect that his efforts to learn the secrets of the universe will never…
be successful. Desperate, frustrated, and suicidal, he makes a deal with Mephistopheles, an agent of the devil. Signed in blood, the contract states that Mephistopheles will obey Faust on Earth, but in return, Faust must serve him in Hell. Faust is unaware that the pact is part of a wager that God and Mephistopheles have made over the fate of his immortal soul. Mephistopheles gives Faust anything and everything he wants, but is it worth the pain and suffering it causes Faust's loved ones? This is an unabridged version of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's tragic play, first published in 1808, and translated by American poet Bayard Taylor in 1870.Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, & Selected Stories
By Nikolay Gogol. 2005
Author, dramatist and satirist, Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852) deeply influenced later Russian literature with his powerful depictions of a society dominated…
by petty beaurocracy and base corruption. This volume includes both his most admired short fiction and his most famous drama. A biting and frequently hilarious political satire, The Government Inspector has been popular since its first performance and was regarded by Nabokov as the greatest Russian play every written. The stories gathered here, meanwhile, range from comic to tragic and describe the isolated lives of low-ranking clerks, lunatics and swindlers. They include Diary of a Madman, an amusing but disturbing exploration of insanity; Nevsky Prospect, a depiction of an artist besotted with a prostitute; and The Overcoat, a moving consideration of poverty that powerfully influenced Dostoevsky and later Russian literature.