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Curated playlist

Plays about kings

  • MacbethIn Macbeth, three witches tell a Scottish general he will be king. Murder, guilt, and paranoia follow.
  • Henry IV, Part 1When Henry IV, Part 1 first appeared on stage in 1597, Falstaff was not called Falstaff. He was called Oldcastle.
  • Henry IV, Part 2In Henry IV, Part 2, the new king publicly rejects Falstaff, his old tavern friend.
  • The Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale, a play by William Shakespeare, contains the most famous stage direction in all of his work: "Exit, pursued by a bear." That single line has long overshadowed a drama of jealousy, grief and apparent resurrection. The…
  • Richard III (play)Shakespeare's Richard III opens with its villain announcing he is determined to prove a villain.
  • Henry V (play)Shakespeare's play Henry V opens with an apology for its own stage. A lone Chorus says the theater is too small.
  • Richard II (play)Supporters of a rebel earl paid actors extra to stage Richard II the night before their planned uprising.
  • King LearFor nearly two centuries, audiences saw King Lear with a happy ending. Nahum Tate's 1681 rewrite cut the Fool.
  • A Midsummer Night's DreamIn A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck gives a weaver a donkey's head and a fairy queen falls for him.
  • CymbelineGeorge Bernard Shaw called Cymbeline "stagey trash" and then rewrote its final act.
  • Henry VI, Part 1The play Henry VI, Part 1 opens at the funeral of Henry V. He leaves a child heir and a kingdom about to fracture.
  • Henry VIII (play)A cannon fired during Henry VIII burned down the Globe Theatre in 1613. The play had run only two or three times.
  • Oedipus RexIn Oedipus Rex, a king vowing to catch a murderer is the killer. Sophocles' play opens with Thebes dying of plague.
  • The BacchaeIn The Bacchae, a mother carries her son's head home believing it is a mountain lion's.

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