Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Timeline of twentieth century theatre

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The following timeline of twentieth-century theatre offers a year-by-year account of the performance and publication of notable works of drama and significant events in the history of theatre during the 20th century. Musical theatre works are excluded from the list below.

Contents

1900

  • David Belasco – Madame Butterfly
  • José Echegaray – El loco Dios (The Madman Divine)
  • Clyde Fitch – Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines
  • Herman Heijermans – Op Hoop van Zegen
  • James Herne – Sag Harbor
  • Haralamb Lecca – Quarta. Jucătoriĭ de cărțĭ
  • George Moore – The Bending of the Bough: a comedy in five acts
  • George Bernard Shaw – Captain Brassbound's Conversion
  • Arthur Schnitzler – La Ronde (German: Reigen; privately printed)
  • August Strindberg
  • The Dance of Death (Dödsdansen)
  • Easter (Påsk)
  • Hermann Sudermann – Fires of St. John

    • 1901

  • Gabriele D'Annunzio – Francesca da Rimini
  • Roberto Bracco – Lost in the Dark (Sperduti nel buio)
  • Anton Chekhov – Three Sisters
  • Clyde Fitch – The Climbers
  • Haralamb Lecca – Quinta. Suprema forță
  • Wilhelm Meyer-Förster – Old Heidelberg (Alt Heidelberg)
  • August Strindberg – A Dream Play (Ett drömspel, published)
  • Stanisław Wyspiański
  • Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem, stage première)
  • The Wedding (Wesele)

    • 1902

  • J. M. Barrie – The Admirable Crichton
  • Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de Flers – Le Cœur a ses raisons
  • Clyde Fitch – The Girl with the Green Eyes
  • Maxim Gorky – The Lower Depths
  • Haralamb Lecca – Septima. Câiniĭ
  • Maurice Maeterlinck – Monna Vanna
  • Frank Wedekind – King Nicolo
  • W. B. Yeats – Cathleen Ní Houlihan

    • 1903

  • Dusé Mohamed Ali – The Jew's Revenge
  • Jacinto Benavente – La noche del sábado (Saturday Night)
  • Haralamb Lecca – Cancer la inimă
  • W. Somerset Maugham – A Man of Honour
  • Ștefan Petică – Frații
  • George Bernard Shaw – Man and Superman (published)
  • J. M. Synge – In the Shadow of the Glen
  • Stanisław Wyspiański – Wyzwolenie ("Liberation")

    • 1904

  • J. M. Barrie – Peter Pan
  • Anton Chekhov – The Cherry Orchard
  • Gabriele D'Annunzio – The Daughter of Iorio
  • Octave Mirbeau – Farces and Moralities
  • Erich Mühsam – The Con Men
  • George Bernard Shaw – John Bull's Other Island
  • Tsubouchi Shōyō (坪内 逍遥)
  • Kiri Hitoha (A Paulownia Leaf; performed)
  • Shinkyoku Urashima (The New Urashima)
  • J. M. Synge – Riders to the Sea
  • Frank Wedekind – Pandora's Box

    • 1905

  • David Belasco – The Girl of the Golden West
  • Jacinto Benavente – Rosas de otoño (Autumn Roses)
  • Clyde Fitch – The Woman in the Case
  • Maxim Gorky – Children of the Sun (Дети солнца, Deti solntsa)
  • Harley Granville-Barker – The Voysey Inheritance
  • Sacha Guitry
  • Le KWTZ
  • Nono
  • Alois Jirásek – Lantern
  • Rainis – Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night)
  • George Bernard Shaw
  • Major Barbara
  • Man and Superman (first staged)
  • J. M. Synge – The Well of the Saints

    • 1906

  • Paul Claudel – Partage de midi (The Break of Midnight, published)
  • Owen Davis – Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model
  • John Galsworthy – The Silver Box
  • Paul Gavault - Robert Charvay - Mademoiselle Josette, My Woman
  • Harley Granville-Barker – Waste (refused public performance licence in UK)
  • Sacha Guitry – Chez les Zoaques
  • George Barr McCutcheon – Brewster's Millions (adaptation)
  • Emma Orczy (Baroness Orczy) – The Sin of William Jackson
  • Hall Caine – The Bondman (A new version)

    • 1907

  • Leonid Andreyev – The Life of Man
  • Jacinto Benavente – Los intereses creados ("The Bonds of Interest")
  • Georges Feydeau – A Flea in Her Ear (La Puce à l'oreille)
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Safed Khoon (adaptation of King Lear)
  • Thomas Mann – Fiorenza
  • John Masefield – The Campden Wonder
  • George Ranetti – Romeo și Julietta la Mizil
  • John Millington Synge – The Playboy of the Western World
  • Teffi – The Woman Question (published)
  • Hall Caine – The Christian (a new version)

    • 1908

  • J. M. Barrie – What Every Woman Knows
  • Jacinto Benavente – Señora ama (The Lady Loves)
  • Tristan Bernard – Les Jumeaux de Brighton (The Brighton Twins)
  • Alexandre Bisson – Madame X (La Femme X)
  • Maurice Maeterlinck – The Blue Bird (L'Oiseau bleu)
  • Octave Mirbeau – Home (Le Foyer)
  • Emma Orczy – Beau Brocade
  • Alicia Ramsey – Byron
  • W. Graham Robertson – Pinkie and the Fairies
  • Edward Sheldon – Salvation Nell
  • J. M. Synge – The Tinker's Wedding
  • Israel Zangwill – The Melting Pot
  • Hall Caine – Pete (new version of The Manxman)

    • 1909

  • Sem Benelli – The Jester's Supper (La cena delle beffe)
  • Clyde Fitch – The City
  • John Galsworthy – Strife
  • Harley Granville-Barker – The Madras House
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Khwab-e-Hasti (The Dream World of Existence)
  • Oskar Kokoschka – Murderer, the Hope of Women (Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen)
  • Else Lasker-Schüler – Die Wupper (published)
  • Ferenc Molnár – Liliom
  • George Bernard Shaw – The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet

    • 1910

  • George Diamandy
  • Bestia (The Beast)
  • Tot înainte (Carry On)
  • Terence MacSwiney – The Last Warriors of Coole
  • Maurice Maeterlinck – Mary Magdalene
  • John Masefield – The Tragedy of Pompey the Great
  • Edmond Rostand – Chantecler
  • George Bernard Shaw – Misalliance
  • J. M. Synge – Deirdre of the Sorrows
  • Rabindranath Tagore – Raja (রাজা, The King of the Dark Chamber)
  • Hall Caine
  • The Bishop's Son (A new version of Ben-my-Chree)
  • The Eternal Question (A new version of The Eternal City)

    • 1911

  • Tristan Bernard – Le petit café
  • George Diamandy – Dolorosa
  • St. John Greer Ervine – Mixed Marriage
  • Gregorio Martínez Sierra
  • Canción de cuna (Cradle Song)
  • Primavera en otoño (Spring in Autumn)
  • Emma Orczy – The Duke's Wager
  • Louis N. Parker – Disraeli
  • Rainis – Indulis un Ārija ("Indulis and Ārija")
  • Arthur Schnitzler – Das weite Land (The Vast Domain, The Distant Land or Undiscovered Country)
  • George Bernard Shaw – Fanny's First Play
  • Karl Vollmöller – Das Mirakel
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal – Jedermann
  • W. B. Yeats – The Countess Cathleen (adapted for performance)
  • Hall Caine -The Quality of Mercy (Also known as The Unwritten Law. A new version of Jan the Icelander)

    • 1912

  • Paul Claudel – L'Annonce faite à Marie (The Tidings Brought to Mary, first performed)
  • George Diamandy – Rațiunea de stat (The Reason of State)
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal – Everyman, adapted as Jedermann
  • Heinrich Mann – Die grosse Liebe (The Great Love, published)
  • Louis N. Parker – Drake of England
  • Arthur Schnitzler – Professor Bernhardi
  • George Bernard Shaw – Pygmalion (published)
  • G. K. Sowerby – Rutherford and Son

    • 1913

  • Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach - The Spanish Fly
  • Jacinto Benavente – La malquerida (The Unloved)
  • Alfred Bronnen – Parricide
  • Victor Ido – Karinda Adinda
  • Oskar Luts – Kapsapea (The Cabbage)
  • Edward Sheldon – Romance
  • Gregorio Martínez Sierra
  • Mamá ("Mama")
  • Sólo para mujeres (For Women Only)
  • Hans Müller-Schlösser – Schneider Wibbel (Wibbel the Tailor)
  • Carl Sternheim – Bürger Schippel (Citizen Schippel)

    • 1914

  • Lord Dunsany – Five Plays (publication)
  • Harley Granville-Barker – Vote By Ballot
  • John Howard Lawson – Atmosphere
  • J. E. Harold Terry and Lechmere Worrall – The Man Who Stayed at Home(a.k.a. The White Feather)
  • Terence MacSwiney – The Revolutionist (publication)
  • Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter C. Hackett – It Pays to Advertise
  • Elmer Rice – On Trial
  • Edward Sheldon – The Song of Songs
  • E. Temple Thurston -The Evolution of Katherine
  • Horace Annesley Vachell – Quinneys

    • 1915

  • Susan Glaspell – Suppressed Desires
  • Avery Hopwood – Fair and Warmer
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Bilwamangal
  • Cleves Kinkead – Common Clay
  • Caton Theodorian – Bujoreștii
  • Horace Annesley Vachell – The Case of Lady Camber

    • 1916

  • Jacinto Benavente – Campo de armiño (Ermine Field)
  • Hall Caine
  • The Prime Minister
  • The Iron Hand (Also known as The Call of the King)
  • Luigi Chiarelli – La maschera e il volto: grottesco in tre atti ("The Mask and the Face")
  • Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound (translated & edited) – Certain Noble Plays of Japan (published)
  • Susan Glaspell – Trifles
  • Harley Granville-Barker – Farewell to the Theatre
  • Walter C. Hackett - The Barton Mystery
  • Franz Kafka – The Warden of the Tomb (Der Gruftwächter; writing commenced)
  • Jack London – The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play
  • Gregorio Martínez Sierra – El reino de Dios ("The Kingdom of God")
  • Allan Monkhouse – Night Watches: a comedy in one act
  • Eden Philpotts – The Farmer's Wife
  • Sophie Treadwell – Claws
  • W. B. Yeats – At the Hawk's Well (private performance)

    • 1917

  • Guillaume Apollinaire – The Breasts of Tiresias (Les mamelles de Tirésias, written 1903, first performed)
  • Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot – The Better 'Ole
  • Ferdinand Bruckner – Der Herr in den Nebeln
  • Hall Caine – The Woman Thou Gavest Me
  • Gilbert Cannan – Everybody's Husband
  • Jean Cocteau – Parade
  • John Drinkwater – X = 0: A Night of the Trojan War
  • John Galsworthy – Justice
  • Georg Kaiser – The Corals
  • A. A. Milne – Wurzel-Flummery
  • Luigi Pirandello – Right You Are (if you think so)
  • Gertrude Stein – An Exercise in Analysis
  • Ridgely Torrence – Three Plays for a Negro Theater
  • Brita von Horn – Kring drottningen
  • Jesse Lynch Williams – Why Marry?

    • 1918

  • Bertolt Brecht – Baal (written)
  • John Drinkwater – Abraham Lincoln
  • Marcel Gerbidon and Paul Armont – School for Coquettes (L'École des cocottes)
  • Susan Glaspell – Tickless Time
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal – The Difficult Man
  • James Joyce – Exiles
  • Georg Kaiser – Gas
  • Alice Dunbar Nelson – Mine Eyes Have Seen
  • Gregorio Martínez Sierra – Sueño de Una Noche de Agosto (Dream of an August Night)
  • Vladimir Mayakovsky – Mystery-Bouffe («Мистерия-Буфф», Misteriya-Buff)
  • Emma Orczy (Baroness Orczy) – The Legion of Honour (adaptation of A Sheaf of Bluebells)
  • Luigi Pirandello
  • But It's Nothing Serious (Ma non è una cosa seria)
  • The Rules of the Game (Il giuoco delle parti, literally The Game of Rôles)

    • 1919

  • Ramón del Valle-Inclán – Divine Words (Divinas palabras)
  • Edward Salisbury Field – Wedding Bells
  • Susan Glaspell – Bernice
  • Harley Granville-Barker – The Secret Life
  • Ian Hay – Tilly of Bloomsbury
  • Karl Kraus – The Last Days of Mankind (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit)
  • Kwee Tek Hoay – Allah jang Palsoe (The False God)
  • Avery Hopwood - The Gold Diggers
  • Else Lasker-Schüler – Die Wupper (first performed, written 1908)
  • A. A. Milne
  • The Camberley Triangle
  • Mr. Pim Passes By
  • Liviu Rebreanu – The Quadrille
  • Ernst Toller – Transformation

    • 1920

  • S. Ansky – The Dybbuk (first performed, in author's Yiddish translation as דֶער דִבּוּק צִווִישֶן צְווַיי ווֶעלְטֶן, Tzvishn Zwey Weltn – der Dibuk)
  • Karel Čapek – R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
  • Nikolai Evreinov – The Storming of the Winter Palace
  • John Galsworthy – The Skin Game
  • Georg Kaiser – Gas II
  • Vladimir Mayakovsky – The Championship of the Universal Class Struggle
  • Eugene O'Neill – The Emperor Jones
  • Ernst Toller – Man and Masses
  • Louis Verneuil – Daniel
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – They

    • 1921

  • Hjalmar Bergman – Farmor och vår Herre (Grandmother and Our Lord, translated as Thy Rod and Thy Staff)
  • Karel Čapek – R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (performed)
  • Karel and Josef Čapek – Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu, published)
  • Clemence Dane – A Bill of Divorcement
  • Susan Glaspell – Inheritors (written) and The Verge (performed)
  • Roland Pertwee – Out to Win
  • Luigi Pirandello – Six Characters in Search of an Author
  • Tristan Tzara – The Gas Heart
  • Raden Adipati Aria Muharam Wiranatakusumah – Lutung Kasarung
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Water Hen (Kurka Wodna)

    • 1922

  • Imtiaz Ali Taj – Anarkali
  • Arnolt Bronnen – Parricide (Vatermord)
  • Karel Čapek – The Makropulos Affair (Věc Makropulos)
  • Jean Cocteau – Antigone
  • J. B. Fagan (adaptation) – Treasure Island
  • Arthur Goodrich – So This Is London
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal – The Great World Theatre (Das Salzburger grosse Welttheater)
  • Lauw Giok Lan – Pendidikan jang Kliroe
  • Eugene O'Neill – The Hairy Ape
  • Ouyang Yuqian (欧阳予倩) – After Returning Home (回家以后)
  • Luigi Pirandello
  • Henry IV (Enrico IV)
  • Clothing the Naked (Vestire gli ignudi)
  • The Imbecile (L'imbecille)
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley – The Cenci (first public performance in England)
  • Carl Sternheim – The Fossil (Das Fossil)
  • Tian Han (田漢)
  • A Night in the Coffee Shop (Kafeidian Yi Ye)
  • Before Lunch (Wufan Zhiqian)
  • Ernst Toller – The Machine-Wreckers (Die Maschinenstürmer)
  • Ben Travers – The Dippers
  • Arthur Valentine – Tons of Money

    • 1923

  • Bertolt Brecht – In the Jungle of Cities
  • Garnet Holme (adapted from Helen Hunt Jackson) – The Ramona Pageant
  • Georg Kaiser – Side by Side (Nebeneinander)
  • Seán O'Casey – The Shadow of a Gunman
  • Elmer Rice – The Adding Machine
  • Arnold Ridley – The Ghost Train
  • Jules Romains – Knock (Knock, ou le Triomphe de la médecine)
  • George Bernard Shaw – Saint Joan
  • Marie Stopes – Our Ostriches
  • Ernst Toller – Hinkemann
  • Sergei Tretyakov
  • Do You Hear, Moscow? (Слышишь, Москва?!)
  • Earth in Turmoil
  • Sutton Vane – Outward Bound
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz
  • The Crazy Locomotive (Szalona lokomotywa)
  • Janulka, Daughter of Fizdejko (Janulka, córka Fizdejki)
  • The Madman and the Nun (Wariat i zakonnica)

    • 1924

  • Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings – What Price Glory?
  • Louis Aragon – Backs to the Wall
  • Bertolt Brecht – The Life of Edward II of England (Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England, adapted from Marlowe)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov – The Fatal Eggs (Роковые яйца)
  • Alberto Casella – La morte in vacanza ("Death takes a holiday")
  • Noël Coward
  • The Vortex (first performed)
  • Hay Fever (written)
  • Easy Virtue (written)
  • Ramón del Valle-Inclán – Bohemian Lights (Luces de Bohemia)
  • Nikolai Erdman – The Mandate (Мандат)
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Aankh ka Nasha
  • George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly – Beggar on Horseback
  • Seán O'Casey – Juno and the Paycock
  • Eugene O'Neill – Desire Under the Elms
  • Henrik Rytter – Herman Ravn
  • Sergei Tretyakov – The Gas Masks (Противогазы)
  • Tristan Tzara – Handkerchief of Clouds (Mouchoir de Nuages)
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Mother (Matka)

    • 1925

  • J. R. Ackerley – The Prisoners of War
  • Arnolt Bronnen – The Bird of Youth (Geburt der Jugend)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov – Zoyka's Apartment (written)
  • Noël Coward – Hay Fever (first performed) and Fallen Angels
  • Federico García Lorca – The Billy-Club Puppets
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal – The Tower (Der Turm)
  • Zora Neale Hurston – Color Struck
  • George Kelly – Craig's Wife
  • John Howard Lawson – Processional
  • Ben Travers – A Cuckoo in the Nest
  • Franz Werfel – Juarez und Maximilian
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Beelzebub Sonata (Sonata Belzebuba)
  • Carl Zuckmayer – The Merry Vineyard (Der fröhliche Weinberg)

    • 1926

  • Bertolt Brecht – Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov – Days of the Turbins (Дни Турбиных)
  • St. John Greer Ervine – Anthony and Anna
  • J. B. Fagan – And So To Bed
  • John Galsworthy – Escape
  • Seán O'Casey – The Plough and the Stars
  • Ben Travers – Rookery Nook
  • Sergei Tretyakov – I Want a Baby (Хочу ребёнка)

    • 1927

  • Isaac Babel – Sunset
  • Philip Barry – Paris Bound
  • Noel Pemberton Billing – High Treason
  • Bertolt Brecht – In The Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte in its final version)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov – Flight («Бег», Beg, written)
  • Federico García Lorca – Mariana Pineda
  • Joseph Goebbels – Der Wanderer (only performances; written 1923)
  • DuBose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward – Porgy
  • Vsevolod Ivanov – Armoured Train 14-69 («Бронепоезд 14-69», Bronepoezd 14-69)
  • George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber – The Royal Family
  • John Howard Lawson – Loud Speaker
  • Alexander Lernet-Holenia – Szene als Einleitung zu einer Totenfeier für Rainer Maria Rilke
  • W. Somerset Maugham – The Letter
  • Ernst Toller – Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir leben!)
  • Ben Travers – Thark
  • Jim Tully – Twenty Below
  • Bayard Veiller – The Trial of Mary Dugan
  • Roger Vitrac – The Mysteries of Love (Les Mystères de l'amour)
  • Emlyn Williams – Full Moon
  • Carl Zuckmayer – Schinderhannes

    • 1928

  • Jacinto Benavente – Pepa Doncel
  • Bertolt Brecht – The Threepenny Opera
  • Joe Corrie – In Time o' Strife
  • Eduardo De Filippo – Filosoficamente
  • Nikolai Erdman – The Suicide («Самоубийца», written)
  • Marieluise Fleißer – Pioneers in Ingolstadt (Pioniere in Ingolstadt)
  • Garrett Fort – Jarnegan
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Sita Banbas (published)
  • Kwee Tek Hoay (郭德懷)– Korbannja Yi Yong Toen ("Victims of Yi Yong Toen", published serially)
  • Daniil Kharms – Elizabeth Bam («Елизавета Бам»)
  • Miroslav Krleža - The Glembays (Gospoda Glembajevi)
  • John Howard Lawson – The International
  • Alexander Lernet-Holenia, as Clemens Neydisser, and Stefan Zweig – Gelegenheit macht Liebe or Quiproquo
  • Federico García Lorca – The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden (Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín, written)
  • W. Somerset Maugham – The Sacred Flame
  • Eugene O'Neill – Strange Interlude (first staging)
  • Ouyang Yuqian (欧阳予倩) – Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮)
  • R. C. Sherriff – Journey's End
  • Ben Travers – Plunder
  • Sophie Treadwell – Machinal
  • Louis Verneuil – Monsieur Lamberthier
  • Roger Vitrac – Victor, or Power to the Children (Victor, ou les enfants au pouvoir)
  • Edgar Wallace
  • The Lad
  • The Man Who Changed His Name
  • The Squeaker
  • Carl Zuckmayer – Katharina Knie

    • 1929

  • Jacinto Benavente – Vidas cruzadas ("Short Cuts")
  • Henri Bernstein – Mélo
  • Bertolt Brecht – The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis)
  • Ferdinand Bruckner – Krankheit der Jugend ("Illness of Youth")
  • St. John Ervine – The First Mrs. Fraser
  • Jean Giraudoux – Amphitryon 38
  • Patrick Hamilton – Rope
  • Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Rustom O Sohrab
  • Kaj Munk – I Brændingen
  • Eugene O'Neill – Dynamo
  • Stanisława Przybyszewska – The Danton Case (Sprawa Dantona)
  • Elmer Rice – Street Scene
  • George Bernard Shaw – The Apple Cart
  • Ahmed Shawqi – Masraa' Kliyubatra ("The Death of Cleopatra")
  • Ödön von Horváth – Rund um den Kongreß

    • 1930

  • Rudolf Besier – The Barretts of Wimpole Street
  • Antoine Bibesco – Ladies All
  • Bertolt Brecht
  • Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny)
  • The Decision (Die Maßnahme)
  • Ferdinand Bruckner – Elisabeth von England ("Elizabeth of England")
  • Jean Cocteau – The Human Voice (La Voix humaine)
  • Marc Connelly – The Green Pastures
  • Noël Coward – Private Lives
  • Nicolae Iorga
  • Sfântul Francisc
  • Fiul cel pierdut
  • Geoffrey Kerr – London Calling
  • Kwee Tek Hoay – Nonton Tjapgome ("Watching the Lantern Festival")
  • Federico García Lorca
  • The Public (El público, written)
  • The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife (La zapatera prodigiosa)
  • Christa Winsloe – Ritter Nérestan (written as Gestern und heute, translated as Children in Uniform)

    • 1931

  • Chen Liting – Put Down Your Whip (放下你的鞭子, Fàngxià nǐde biānzi)
  • Noël Coward – Post Mortem (published)
  • John van Druten – London Wall
  • Federico García Lorca – When Five Years Pass (Así que pasen cinco años, written)
  • Jean Giraudoux – Judith
  • Eugene O'Neill – Mourning Becomes Electra
  • Ahmed Shawqi – Qambeez (Cambyses)
  • Dodie Smith – Autumn Crocus
  • Gladys Bronwyn Stern – The Man Who Pays The Piper
  • Ödön von Horváth – Tales from the Vienna Woods (Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald)
  • Thornton Wilder – The Long Christmas Dinner
  • Carl Zuckmayer – The Captain of Köpenick (Der Hauptmann von Köpenick)

    • 1932

  • S. N. Behrman – Biography
  • Elias Canetti – Hochzeit (Wedding)
  • Noël Coward – Design for Living
  • Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo – Toko Atolia
  • George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber – Dinner at Eight
  • Marcel Pagnol – Fanny
  • Ahmed Shawqi – Amirat el-Andalus (The Andalusian Princess )
  • Ödön von Horváth – Kasimir und Karoline

    • 1933

  • Tawfiq al-Hakim – Ahl el-Kahf (The People of the Cave)
  • Jean Anouilh – Mandarine
  • Ferdinand Bruckner – Die Rassen
  • Gordon Daviot (Josephine Tey) – Richard of Bordeaux
  • Selli Engler – Heil Hitler
  • Sidney Kingsley – Men in White
  • Federico García Lorca – Blood Wedding
  • Eugene O'Neill – Ah, Wilderness!
  • J. B. Priestley – Laburnum Grove
  • Lennox Robinson – Drama at Inish
  • Mordaunt Shairp – The Green Bay Tree

    • 1934

  • Tawfiq al-Hakim – Shahrazad (Scheherazade)
  • Jean Cocteau – The Infernal Machine
  • Federico García Lorca – Yerma
  • Lillian Hellman – The Children's Hour
  • Frederick J. Jackson – The Bishop Misbehaves
  • Pär Lagerkvist – Bödeln (The Hangman; dramatization)
  • Eberhard Wolfgang Möller – Rothschild siegt bei Waterloo
  • Ayn Rand – Night of January 16th (first performed as Woman on Trial)
  • Lawrence Riley – Personal Appearance

    • 1935

  • Maxwell Anderson – Winterset
  • T. S. Eliot – Murder in the Cathedral
  • Federico García Lorca – Doña Rosita the Spinster (Doña Rosita la soltera)
  • Jean Giraudoux – The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu)
  • Archibald MacLeish – Panic
  • Clifford Odets – Waiting for Lefty
  • Lawrence Riley – Personal Appearance
  • Emlyn Williams – Night Must Fall

    • 1936

  • W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood – The Ascent of F6
  • S. N. Behrman – End of Summer
  • Bertolt Brecht – Round Heads and Pointed Heads (Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe)
  • Noël Coward – Tonight at 8:30 and Present Laughter
  • Mazo de la Roche and Nancy Price – Whiteoaks
  • Harley Granville-Barker – Waste (first public performance, 1927 version; originally written 1906)
  • George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart – You Can't Take It with You
  • Sinclair Lewis and John C. Moffitt – It Can't Happen Here (dramatisation)
  • Federico García Lorca – The House of Bernarda Alba (La casa de Bernarda Alba; written)
  • Clare Boothe Luce – The Women
  • Terence Rattigan – French Without Tears
  • Irwin Shaw – Bury the Dead
  • Ödön von Horváth
  • Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg ("Don Juan Comes Back From the War")
  • Figaro läßt sich scheiden ("Figaro Gets a Divorce")

    • 1937

  • Bertolt Brecht with Margarete Steffin – Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar (adapted from J. M. Synge's Señora Carrar's Rifles)
  • Karel Čapek – The White Disease (Bílá nemoc)
  • Paul Vincent Carroll – Shadow and Substance
  • Arthur Kober – "Having Wonderful Time"
  • Robert McLellan – Jamie the Saxt
  • Robert Morley – Goodness, How Sad
  • J. B. Priestley – Time and the Conways
  • Hella Wuolijoki writing as Juhani Tervapää – Juurakon Hulda
  • John Ferguson, editor – Seven Famous One-Act Plays (published)

    • 1938

  • Jean Anouilh – Thieves' Carnival (Le Bal des Voleurs)
  • Robert Ardrey – Casey Jones
  • Patrick Hamilton – Gas Light
  • Esther McCracken – Quiet Wedding
  • Kaj Munk – Han sidder ved Smeltediglen
  • J. B. Priestley – When We Are Married
  • Robert E. Sherwood – Abe Lincoln in Illinois
  • Dodie Smith – Dear Octopus
  • Rodolfo Usigli – El gesticulador
  • Theodore Ward – Big White Fog
  • Thornton Wilder – Our Town
  • Emlyn Williams – The Corn is Green

    • 1939

  • Philip Barry – The Philadelphia Story
  • Bertolt Brecht
  • Life of Galileo (Leben des Galilei; completed)
  • Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder; written)
  • T. S. Eliot – The Family Reunion
  • Jean Giraudoux – Ondine
  • Lillian Hellman – The Little Foxes
  • George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart – The Man Who Came to Dinner
  • Joseph Kesselring – Arsenic and Old Lace
  • Clare Boothe Luce – Margin of Error
  • William Saroyan – The Time of Your Life

    • 1940

  • Jean Anouilh – Léocadia
  • Bertolt Brecht – Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti, written)
  • Agatha Christie – Peril at End House
  • Jean Cocteau – Le Bel indifférent
  • Artturi Järviluoma – Pohjalaisia
  • Lawrence Riley – Return Engagement
  • George Shiels – The Rugged Path
  • Emlyn Williams – The Corn Is Green

    • 1941

  • Jean Anouilh
  • Eurydice
  • Le Rendez-vous de Senlis
  • Bertolt Brecht
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
  • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (written)
  • Noël Coward – Blithe Spirit
  • Esther McCracken – Quiet Weekend
  • Enrique Jardiel Poncela – We Thieves Are Honourable (Los ladrones somos gente honrada)
  • Vernon Sylvaine
  • Warn That Man!
  • Women Aren't Angels
  • Xavier Villaurrutia – Invitación à la muerte

    • 1942

  • Jean Anouilh – Antigone
  • Jacinto Benavente – La honradez de la cerradura
  • Paul Vincent Carroll – The Strings Are False
  • Maurice Druon – Mégarée
  • Arthur Miller – Thunder from the Hills (radio play)
  • Kaj Munk – Niels Ebbesen
  • Eugene O'Neill – A Touch of the Poet (written)
  • Terence Rattigan – Flare Path

    • 1943

  • Bertolt Brecht
  • The Good Person of Szechwan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan)
  • Life of Galileo (Leben des Galilei)
  • Albert Camus – The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu)
  • Moss Hart – Winged Victory
  • Fritz Hochwälder – Das Heilige Experiment (The Holy Experiment, The Strong Are Lonely)
  • Elena Miramova – Dark Eyes
  • M. J. Molloy – Old Road
  • Armijn Pane – Kami, Perempuan (We, the Women)
  • Terence Rattigan - While the Sun Shines
  • Nelson Rodrigues – Vestido de Noiva (The Wedding Dress)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – The Flies (Les Mouches)
  • Yang Jiang – As You Desire (Chenxin ruyi)

    • 1944

  • Jean Anouilh – Antigone
  • Bertolt Brecht – The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis; written)
  • Balwant Gargi – Lohākuṭ ("Blacksmith")
  • Philip King – See How They Run
  • Max Otto Koischwitz – Vision Of Invasion (broadcast propaganda)
  • Terence Rattigan - Love In Idleness (rewriting of Less Than Kind)
  • Lawrence Riley – Time to Kill
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – No Exit (Huis Clos)
  • John Van Druten – I Remember Mama
  • Franz Werfel – Jacobowsky and the Colonel (Jacobowsky und der Oberst)
  • Tennessee Williams – The Glass Menagerie

    • 1945

  • Jacinto Benavente – La infanzona
  • Mary Chase – Harvey
  • Eduardo De Filippo – Napoli milionaria ("The Millions of Naples")
  • Jean Giraudoux (posthumously) – The Madwoman of Chaillot (La Folle de Chaillot)
  • Curt Goetz – The House in Montevideo (Das Haus in Montevideo)
  • Arthur Laurents – Home of the Brave
  • J. B. Priestley – An Inspector Calls

    • 1946

  • Jean Cocteau – L'Aigle à deux têtes
  • Eduardo De Filippo
  • Filumena Marturano
  • Questi fantasmi (All these ghosts)
  • Christopher Fry – A Phoenix Too Frequent (verse)
  • Ewan MacColl – Uranium 235
  • Donagh MacDonagh – Happy as Larry
  • Robert McLeish – The Gorbals Story
  • Eugene O'Neill – The Iceman Cometh
  • Terence Rattigan – The Winslow Boy
  • Nelson Rodrigues – Álbum de família
  • Carl Zuckmayer – Des Teufels General (The Devil's General)

    • 1947

  • Jean Anouilh – Invitation to the Castle (L'Invitation au Château)
  • William Douglas-Home – The Chiltern Hundreds
  • Jean Genet – The Maids (Les Bonnes)
  • Arthur Miller – All My Sons
  • Ena Lamont Stewart – Men Should Weep
  • Tennessee Williams – A Streetcar Named Desire

    • 1948

  • Bertolt Brecht – Antigone, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti, first performed)
  • Robertson Davies – Overlaid
  • Witold Gombrowicz – The Marriage (first published, in Spanish translation)
  • Terence Rattigan – The Browning Version and Harlequinade
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – Dirty Hands (Les Mains sales)
  • Vernon Sylvaine - One Wild Oat
  • Kerala women's Malayalam collective – Thozhil Kendrathilekku ("To the Workplace!")

    • 1949

  • T. S. Eliot – The Cocktail Party
  • Christopher Fry – The Lady's Not for Burning
  • Jean Genet – Deathwatch (Haute Surveillance)
  • Sidney Kingsley – Detective Story
  • Arthur Miller – Death of a Salesman
  • Lynn Riggs – Out of Dust
  • Nelson Rodrigues – Dorotéia

    • 1950

  • Bertolt Brecht – The Tutor (Der Hofmeister, adapted from Lenz)
  • Emilio Carballido – Rosalba y los Llaveros
  • Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Romulus the Great (Romulus der Große)
  • Christopher Fry – Venus Observed
  • Kermit Hunter – Unto These Hills
  • William Inge – Come Back, Little Sheba
  • Eugène Ionesco – The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice chauve)
  • Terence Rattigan – Who Is Sylvia?
  • John Steinbeck – Burning Bright

    • 1951

  • Eugène Ionesco – The Lesson (La Leçon)
  • Maryat Lee – Dope!
  • A. A. Milne – Before the Flood
  • Lawrence Riley – Kin Hubbard
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – The Devil and the Good Lord (Le Diable et le Bon Dieu)
  • John Van Druten – I Am a Camera
  • John Whiting
  • A Penny for a Song
  • Saint's Day (first performance)
  • Tennessee Williams – The Rose Tattoo

    • 1952

  • Rodney Ackland – The Pink Room
  • Jean Anouilh – The Lark (L'Alouette)
  • Jacinto Benavente – Ha llegado Don Juan
  • Alice Childress – Gold Through the Trees
  • Robertson Davies – A Masque of Aesop
  • Friedrich Dürrenmatt – The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi, first performance)
  • Charles Langbridge Morgan – The River Line
  • Terence Rattigan – The Deep Blue Sea

    • 1953

  • Arthur Adamov – Professor Taranne (Le Professeur Taranne)
  • Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot)
  • Agatha Christie – Witness for the Prosecution
  • Max Frisch – The Fire Raisers (Biedermann und die Brandstifter, originally for radio)
  • Witold Gombrowicz – The Marriage (Ślub, Polish version published)
  • Arthur Miller – The Crucible
  • Erwin Strittmatter – Katzgraben

    • 1954

  • Tawfiq al-Hakim – El Aydi El Na'mah (Soft Hands)
  • Brendan Behan – The Quare Fellow
  • Dharamvir Bharati – Andha Yug (The Blind Age)
  • Saunders Lewis – Siwan
  • Terence Rattigan – Separate Tables
  • Reginald Rose – Twelve Angry Men (original version as live teleplay)
  • Dylan Thomas – Under Milk Wood (radio play)
  • Thornton Wilder – The Matchmaker

    • 1955

  • Enid Bagnold – The Chalk Garden
  • Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot (English version)
  • Bertolt Brecht – Trumpets and Drums (Pauken und Trompeten; adaptation of Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer (1706))
  • Alice Childress – Trouble in Mind
  • William Inge – Bus Stop
  • Eugène Ionesco
  • Jack, or The Submission (Jacques ou la soumission)
  • The New Tenant (Le Nouveau locataire)
  • Kol Jakova – Toka jonë (Our Land)
  • Ray Lawler – Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
  • Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee – Inherit the Wind
  • Arthur Miller
  • A View from the Bridge (one-act verse version)
  • A Memory of Two Mondays
  • Reginald Rose – Twelve Angry Men (stage version)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – Nekrassov
  • Ariano Suassuna – O Auto da Compadecida (The Compassionate Self)
  • Thornton Wilder
  • The Matchmaker
  • A Life in the Sun
  • Tennessee Williams – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • Carl Zuckmayer – The Cold Light (Das kalte Licht)

    • 1956

  • Jean Anouilh – Pauvre Bitos, ou Le dîner de têtes (Poor Bitos)
  • Ferdinand Bruckner – The Fight with the Angel (Der Kampf mit dem Engel)
  • José Manuel Castañón – Moletú-Volevá
  • Friedrich Dürrenmatt – The Visit (Der Besuch der alten Dame)
  • Max Frisch – Philipp Hotz's Fury (Die Grosse Wut des Philipp Hotz)
  • Hugh Leonard – The Birthday Party
  • Saunders Lewis – Siwan
  • Bruce Mason – The Pohutukawa Tree
  • Arthur Miller – A View from the Bridge (revised version)
  • Yukio Mishima – Rokumeikan
  • Heiner Müller and Inge Müller – Der Lohndrücker (The Scab, written)
  • Eugene O'Neill – Long Day's Journey into Night
  • John Osborne – Look Back in Anger
  • Arnold Wesker – Chicken Soup with Barley (written)

    • 1957

  • Samuel Beckett – Endgame and Act Without Words I (first performed); All That Fall and From an Abandoned Work (first broadcast of both)
  • Emilio Carballido – El censo
  • Christopher Fry – The Dark is Light Enough
  • Jean Genet – The Balcony (Le Balcon)
  • Günter Grass – Flood (Hochwasser)
  • Graham Greene – The Potting Shed
  • William Inge – The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
  • Errol John – Moon on a Rainbow Shawl
  • John Osborne
  • The Entertainer
  • Epitaph for George Dillon
  • Harold Pinter – The Dumb Waiter (written)
  • N. F. Simpson – The Resounding Tinkle
  • Wole Soyinka – The Invention
  • Boris Vian – Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (The Empire Builders)
  • Tennessee Williams
  • Baby Doll
  • Orpheus Descending

    • 1958

  • Samuel Beckett – Krapp's Last Tape
  • Brendan Behan – The Hostage
  • Bertolt Brecht – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui, written 1941, first performed)
  • Refik Erduran – Bir Kilo Namus ("One Kilo Honesty")
  • Max Frisch – The Fire Raisers (Biedermann und die Brandstifter, first stage adaptation)
  • Jean Genet – The Blacks: A Clown Show (Les Nègres, clownerie, first published)
  • Ann Jellicoe – The Sport of My Mad Mother
  • Sławomir Mrożek – The Police (Policja)
  • Heiner Müller and Inge Müller
  • Die Korrektur (The Correction)
  • Der Lohndrücker (The Scab, first performed)
  • Mohan Rakesh – Ashadh Ka Ek Din (आषाढ़ का एक दिन, "One Day in Ashadh")
  • Barry Reckord – Flesh to a Tiger
  • Elmer Rice – Cue for Passion
  • Peter Shaffer – Five Finger Exercise
  • N. F. Simpson – The Hole
  • Wole Soyinka – The Swamp Dwellers
  • Derek Walcott – Drums and Colours
  • Arnold Wesker – Chicken Soup with Barley (first performed)
  • Tennessee Williams – Suddenly, Last Summer

    • 1959

  • Edward Albee
  • The Death of Bessie Smith (written)
  • The Zoo Story (premiered in German)
  • Jean Anouilh – Becket
  • John Arden – Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
  • Alan Ayckbourn (as Roland Allen) – The Square Cat
  • Samuel Beckett – Embers (first broadcast)
  • Bertolt Brecht (posthumously) – Saint Joan of the Stockyards (Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe, first stage performance)
  • Albert Camus – The Possessed (Les Possédés)
  • Beverley Cross – One More River
  • Refik Erduran – Cengiz Han’ın Bisikleti (The Bicycle of Genghis Khan)
  • Jack Gelber – The Connection
  • Jean Genet – The Blacks: A Clown Show (Les Nègres, clownerie, first performed)
  • Lorraine Hansberry – A Raisin in the Sun
  • Eugène Ionesco – The Killer (Tueur sans gages)
  • Harold Pinter – The Caretaker (first published)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – The Condemned of Altona (Les Séquestrés d'Altona, translated as Loser Wins)
  • N. F. Simpson – One Way Pendulum
  • Wole Soyinka – The Lion and the Jewel
  • Arnold Wesker
  • Roots
  • The Kitchen
  • Tennessee Williams – Sweet Bird of Youth
  • Egon Wolff – Parejas de trapo

    • 1960

  • Tawfiq al-Hakim – El Sultan El-Ha'er (The Sultan Perplexed)
  • Edward Albee – The Death of Bessie Smith and The Sandbox (first performances)
  • Samuel Beckett – The Old Tune (first broadcast)
  • Robert Bolt – A Man for All Seasons (stage version) and The Tiger and the Horse
  • Marc Camoletti – Boeing-Boeing
  • Noël Coward – Waiting in the Wings
  • Beverley Cross – Strip the Willow
  • Witold Gombrowicz – The Marriage (Ślub, first performance)
  • Eugène Ionesco – Rhinocéros
  • Ira Levin – Critic's Choice
  • Stephen Lewis and Theatre Workshop – Sparrers Can't Sing
  • Bruce Mason – The End of the Golden Weather
  • Tad Mosel – All the Way Home
  • Harold Pinter
  • The Caretaker (first performed and published)
  • The Room (first professional performance)
  • A Night Out (first broadcast)
  • Terence Rattigan – Ross
  • Barry Reckord – You in Your Small Corner
  • Nelson Rodrigues – Beijo no Asfalto (The Asphalt Kiss)
  • Wole Soyinka – A Dance of the Forests
  • Gore Vidal – The Best Man
  • Maruxa Vilalta – Los disorientados (The Disoriented Ones)
  • Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall – Billy Liar
  • Orson Welles (adaptation) – Chimes at Midnight
  • Tennessee Williams – Period of Adjustment

    • References

    Timeline of twentieth-century theatre Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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