The World's
Greatest
Plays

Theatre's essential canon — ranked by monthly views

This month's top 3

The full list

  1. 1
    Tragedy

    Death of a Salesman

    By Arthur Miller · First performed in 1949

    A brutal, compassionate portrait of a man destroyed by the dream he spent his life chasing, and still one of the greatest plays ever written about work, masculinity and failure.

    132 views
    Watch
  2. 2
    Dramatic Comedy

    Marx in Soho: A Play on History

    By Howard Zinn · First performed in 1999

    A furious, funny and unexpectedly human solo play that drags Karl Marx out of history books and drops him directly into the chaos of modern life.

    65 views
  3. 3
    Theatre of the Absurd

    Six Characters in Search of an Author

    By Luigi Pirandello · First performed in 1921

    A thrillingly strange play that tears theatre apart in front of the audience and asks whether stories can ever capture the truth of a human life.

    62 views
    Watch
  4. 4
    Epic Theatre

    Mother Courage and Her Children

    By Bertolt Brecht · First performed in 1941

    A furious, darkly funny anti war play that strips conflict down to money, survival and human compromise with terrifying clarity.

    57 views
    Watch
  5. 5
    Tragedy

    Antigone

    By Sophocles · First performed in 441 BCE

    An unnervingly modern tragedy about political power, moral conviction and the terrible cost of refusing to bend.

    55 views
    Watch
  6. 6
    Tragedy

    Hedda Gabler

    By Henrik Ibsen · First performed in 1891

    A chilling and darkly funny study of boredom, power and repression, with one of the most fascinating women ever written for the stage at its centre.

    39 views
    Watch
  7. 7
    Tragedy

    The Glass Menagerie

    By Tennessee Williams · First performed in 1944

    A fragile, piercing memory play about love, shame and escape that captures the sadness of family life with almost unbearable precision.

    31 views
    Watch
  8. 8
    Social Realism

    The Seagull

    By Anton Chekhov · First performed in 1896

    A beautiful and painfully funny play about artistic failure, unreturned love and the terrible gap between the lives people dream of and the lives they actually live.

    26 views
    Watch
  9. 9
    Dramatic Comedy

    Lysistrata

    By Aristophanes · First performed in 411

    A filthy, furious anti war comedy that still feels shockingly alive more than two thousand years after it was written.

    25 views
  10. 10
    Tragedy

    Medea

    By Euripides · First performed in 431 BCE

    A furious, terrifying tragedy that forces an audience to sit inside betrayal, grief and revenge with absolutely nowhere to hide.

    24 views
    Watch
  11. 11
    17th Century

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream

    By William Shakespeare · First performed in 1600

    Shakespeare’s most joyful play becomes stranger and wiser with age, a romantic comedy that understands how irrational love can feel and how fragile happiness really is.

    23 views
  12. 12
    Dramatic Comedy

    Every Brilliant Thing

    By Duncan Macmillan · First performed in 2013

    The funniest play about depression you will ever see, and one of the most honest things theatre has done with mental health in a generation.

    23 views
    Watch
  13. 13
    Social Satire

    The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole

    By Kuo Pao Kun · First performed in 1985

    A deceptively simple play that turns one bureaucratic problem into a devastating portrait of grief, authority and the absurdity of modern systems.

    21 views
    Watch
  14. 14
    Tragedy

    A Streetcar Named Desire

    By Tennessee Williams · First performed in 1947

    A feverish, devastating portrait of desire, class and self deception that still feels dangerous every time it is performed.

    20 views
    Watch
  15. 15
    Tragedy

    Long Day’s Journey into Night

    By Eugene O'Neill · First performed in 1956

    A devastating family drama that strips away every illusion about love, addiction and forgiveness until all that remains is raw human need.

    20 views
  16. 16
    Theatre of the Absurd

    Waiting for Godot

    By Samuel Beckett · First performed in 1953

    A strange, hilarious and deeply human play about time, companionship and the terror of waiting for a life that never quite arrives.

    20 views
    Watch
  17. 17
    Dramatic Comedy

    The Cherry Orchard

    By Anton Chekhov · First performed in 1904

    A quietly heartbreaking masterpiece about people watching their world disappear in real time. Funny, delicate and far more savage than its reputation suggests.

    19 views
    Watch
  18. 18
    Romantic Comedy

    Cyrano de Bergerac

    By Edmond Rostand · First performed in 1897

    A thrilling romantic comedy about wit, pride and longing that somehow feels intimate even at its most theatrical.

    18 views
    Watch
  19. 19
    Epic Theatre

    The Good Person of Szechwan

    By Bertolt Brecht · First performed in 1943

    A brilliant, unsettling play that asks one impossible question with complete clarity: how do you remain good in a society that punishes kindness at every turn?

    18 views
  20. 20
    Dramatic Comedy

    The Misanthrope

    By Molière · First performed in 1666

    A razor sharp comedy about the exhausting performance of social life and the danger of demanding absolute honesty from a world built on politeness.

    18 views
  21. 21
    Noh Theatre

    Dōjōji

    By Kan'ami · First performed in Unknown

    A hypnotic theatrical ghost story where jealousy becomes sacred terror and every movement feels charged with centuries of emotion.

    17 views
    Watch
  22. 22
    Tragedy

    Miss Julie

    By August Strindberg · First performed in 1888

    A scorching psychological duel about sex, class and power that still feels dangerous more than a century after it was written.

    17 views
  23. 23
    Tragedy

    Oedipus Rex

    By Sophocles · First performed in 429 BCE

    A terrifyingly precise tragedy about knowledge, power and the human need to believe we control our own lives.

    17 views
    Watch
  24. 24
    Tragedy

    The Bacchae

    By Euripides · First performed in 405 BCE

    A savage and hypnotic tragedy about repression, ecstasy and the terrifying consequences of believing reason alone can control human nature.

    16 views
  25. 25
    Musical Theatre

    Hamilton

    By Lin-Manuel Miranda · First performed in 2015

    A thrilling reinvention of the historical musical that turns the founding of America into a story about ambition, legacy and the unbearable pressure to matter.

    14 views
    Watch
  26. 26
    Tragedy

    Phèdre

    By Jean Racine · First performed in 1677

    A blazing tragedy of forbidden desire and moral collapse that turns private shame into something terrifyingly public and unforgettable.

    14 views
  27. 27
    Dramatic Comedy

    Uncle Vanya

    By Anton Chekhov · First performed in 1899

    A painfully funny portrait of wasted years, buried desire and the terrifying feeling that life may already have passed you by.

    14 views
  28. 28
    Social Realism

    A Doll’s House

    By Henrik Ibsen · First performed in 1879

    A play that changed theatre forever by asking a terrifyingly simple question: what happens when a woman decides her own life matters more than the role she has been assigned?

    12 views
    Watch
  29. 29
    Social Realism

    Dancing at Lughnasa

    By Brian Friel · First performed in 1990

    A tender and devastating memory play about family, freedom and the brief moments of joy that survive even in lives shaped by sacrifice.

    12 views
    Watch
  30. 30
    Tragedy

    Hamlet

    By William Shakespeare · First performed in 1603

    Possibly the greatest play ever written about grief, paralysis and the terrifying difficulty of knowing what the right thing actually is.

    12 views
  31. 31
    Tragedy

    Othello

    By William Shakespeare · First performed in 1603

    A terrifying study of jealousy, manipulation and prejudice that turns intimate human weakness into full scale tragedy with unbearable precision.

    11 views
  32. 32
    Tragedy

    Death and the King’s Horseman

    By Wole Soyinka · First performed in 1975

    A thrilling and devastating play about duty, colonial violence and spiritual responsibility that still feels dangerously alive.

    10 views
    Watch
  33. 33
    Morality Play

    Everyman

    By Anonymous · First performed in 1510

    A strange, powerful medieval drama that strips a human life down to its essentials and asks what, if anything, remains when death arrives.

    10 views