Curated playlist
Modernist theatre
- T. S. EliotT. S. Eliot compared an evening sky to a patient on a surgical table.
- Henrik IbsenTold he seemed a little better, dying Henrik Ibsen replied, "On the contrary." The playwright died the next day in 1906.
- Bertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht left a U.S. congressional hearing in 1947 and flew to Europe the next morning.
- Anton ChekhovAnton Chekhov's body traveled to Moscow in a railway car meant for oysters. The detail offended his friend Maxim Gorky.
- Eugene O'NeillPlaywright Eugene O'Neill was born in a hotel room and died in one. His last words were about that coincidence.
- W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
- Karel ČapekNazi agents came to arrest Karel Čapek months after he had already died. They found only his wife, Olga.
- Jean AnouilhJean Anouilh's play Antigone opened in occupied Paris in 1944 and censors passed it. Many heard resistance in it.
- Luigi PirandelloNobel winner Luigi Pirandello gave his medal to the government to be melted down.
- Vladimir MayakovskyPoet Vladimir Mayakovsky once threw tea at his audiences. He later wrote propaganda posters for the Communist Party.
- Sergei EisensteinSergei Eisenstein reached Hollywood in May 1930 and was sent home within five months.
- Natalia GoncharovaNatalia Goncharova walked Moscow's streets with painted cheeks, handing out a manifesto.