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Recommendations based on 'night, Motherby Marsha Norman
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Proof
by David Auburn
A young woman struggles to prove her mathematical genius, while dealing with a troubled past.
The play concerns Catherine, the daughter of Robert, a recently deceased mathematical genius in his fifties and professor at the University of Chicago , and her struggle with mathematical genius and ... (Wikipedia)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
by Tennessee Williams
A family struggling to confront hidden resentments and repressions that lurk beneath the surface.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband Brick and wife Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's ... (Wikipedia)
Wit
by Margaret Edson
A professor's journey of self-discovery as she faces her own mortality.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award,Margaret Edson’s ... (Goodreads)
Fences
by August Wilson
A family struggles to reconcile their differences and understand their place in a segregated society.
The focus of Wilson's attention in Fences is Troy, a 53-year-old working class head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; ... (Wikipedia)
Inherit the Wind
by Jerome Lawrence
A courtroom drama about a teacher accused of violating a law against teaching evolution.
A meaningful play based on the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, in which a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching evolution. The accused was a slight, frightened man who'd deliberately broken the law. ... (Goodreads)
Doubt, a Parable
by John Patrick Shanley
A priest's moral dilemma as he faces accusations of inappropriate behavior.
The play is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx , during the fall of 1964. It opens with a sermon by Father Flynn, a beloved and progressive parish priest, addressing the ... (Wikipedia)
Glengarry Glen Ross
by David Mamet
Cutthroat competition in a real estate sales office, where survival of the fittest is the only way out.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard
A humorous exploration of fate and free will, seen through the eyes of two minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a ... (Goodreads)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee
A darkly comedic exploration of a troubled couple's tumultuous marriage.
George and Martha engage in dangerous emotional games. George is an associate professor of history and Martha is the daughter of the president of the college where George teaches. After they return ... (Wikipedia)
A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
A woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and present in a post-war New Orleans.
After the loss of her family home to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi , to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger married sister, Stella , ... (Wikipedia)
The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh
A darkly comic tale of a writer accused of murder, testing the limits of storytelling.
Ariel and Tupolski interrogate Katurian in a police room, adopting a good cop/bad cop routine with Ariel happily playing the bad cop. At first Katurian does not know why he is being questioned, and ... (Wikipedia)
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles
A coming-of-age story about two boys and their complex friendship set during World War II.
Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school, Devon (a thinly veiled portrayal of Knowles's alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy ), , 15 years after he graduated, to visit two places he regards as ... (Wikipedia)
The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter
A seemingly ordinary birthday party turns into a nightmare of paranoia and fear.
While Meg prepares to serve her husband Petey breakfast, Stanley, described as a man "in his late thirties" (23), who is dishevelled and unshaven, enters from upstairs. Alternating between maternal ... (Wikipedia)
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry
A black family's struggle for a better life and the dreams that accompany their journey.
Walter and Ruth Younger, their son Travis, along with Walter's mother Lena (Mama) and Walter's sister Beneatha, live in poverty in a dilapidated two-bedroom apartment on Chicago's south side. Walter ... (Wikipedia)
Miss Julie
by August Strindberg
A count's daughter, Miss Julie, seduces her father's valet, leading to tragic consequences. A play about class, gender, and power dynamics.
The play opens with Jean walking on the stage, the set being the kitchen of the manor. He drops the Count's boots off to the side but still within view of the audience; his clothing shows that he is ... (Wikipedia)
The Elephant Man
by Bernard Pomerance
The story of John Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian England, and his journey to find acceptance and dignity.
The Elephant Man opens with Frederick Treves , an up-and-coming surgeon, meeting his new employer Francis Carr-Gomm, the administrator of the London Hospital. Ross, the manager of a freak show , ... (Wikipedia)
Long Day's Journey into Night
by Eugene O'Neill
Tragic story of a family's struggles with addiction, emotions and guilt.
Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since ... (Goodreads)
Arsenic and Old Lace
by Joseph Kesselring
Dark comedic tale of two elderly sisters who commit murder out of kindness.
The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the, Mayflower, settlers but now composed of maniacs, most of them homicidal. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is ... (Wikipedia)
A Doll's House
by Henrik Ibsen
A woman's struggle to break from societal expectations and find her own identity.
A Doll's House (1879), is a masterpiece of theatrical craft which, for the first time portrayed the tragic hypocrisy of Victorian middle class marriage on the stage. The play ushered in a new social ... (Goodreads)
An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde
A play exploring the themes of blackmail, political corruption, and the nature of honor and integrity in Victorian society.
The play opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square . Sir Robert, an esteemed member of the House of Commons , and his wife, Lady ... (Wikipedia)
Perestroika
by Tony Kushner
A powerful look at the impact of political upheaval on the lives of ordinary people.
Set in New York City, the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986. , The play begins with the funeral of Sarah Ironson, an elderly Jewish woman, whose rabbi eulogizes not only her, ... (Wikipedia)
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.
Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (Wikipedia)
August: Osage County
by Tracy Letts
A darkly comic and dramatic family reunion, exposing dysfunction and tensions.
The action takes place over the course of several weeks in August inside the three-story home of Beverly and Violet Weston outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma . Prologue The play opens with Beverly Weston, a ... (Wikipedia)
The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
A complex, interwoven story of family secrets, love, tragedy, and mystery.
The novel's protagonist , Iris Chase, and her sister Laura, grow up well-off but motherless in a small town in southern Ontario. As an old woman, Iris recalls the events and relationships of her ... (Wikipedia)
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
A young woman's struggle to find her place in society, while being held back by her family.
The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Because the play is based on memory, ... (Wikipedia)
The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)
This Lullaby
by Sarah Dessen
A teenage girl's journey of self-discovery, learning to let go of the past and embrace love.
Remy is an eighteen-year-old who is about to leave for college. Her father, a musician, wrote his one and only hit song the day she was born. The song, called "This Lullaby," became extremely ... (Wikipedia)
Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A collection of four works exploring the human psyche, morality, and existentialism through the lens of Russian society.
The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg . He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. It ... (Wikipedia)
Where the Red Fern Grows
by Wilson Rawls
A young boy embarks on an adventure with his beloved hunting dogs, learning valuable life lessons.
An old man named Billy Colman rescues a redbone hound under attack by neighborhood dogs. He takes it home with him so that its wounds can heal. In light of this event, he has a flashback to when he ... (Wikipedia)
Terms of Endearment
by Larry McMurtry
A mother-daughter relationship is tested by love, loss, and life's challenges.
Widowed Aurora Greenway ( Shirley MacLaine ) keeps several suitors at arm's length in Houston , focusing instead on her close, but controlling, relationship with daughter Emma ( Debra Winger ). ... (Wikipedia)
