Nicholas Rudall, whose acclaimed translations of Ibsen and the Greek classic playwrights have brought a fresh perspective to the American theater, turns his talents to one of the Norwegian dramatist's most provocative plays. In a rebuke to the Victorian notion of community as well as to the blessings of democracy, Ibsen creates a situation in which one man must stand alone to face the forces allied against him. In a coastal town, a community-minded physician has promoted the development of public baths in order to attract tourists. When he discovers that the water supply for the baths is contaminated and attempts to publicize the failing and correct it, he and his family are all but driven out of the town he was trying to save.

As bleak and agonizing a portrait of war as ever to appear on the stage, The Trojan Women is a masterpiece of pathos as well as a timeless and chilling indictment of war's brutality. Plays for Performance Series

First published for private circulation in Vienna in 1900, Arthur Schnitzler's famous play looks at the sexual morality and class ideology of his day through a series of sexual encounters between pairs of characters. When published publicly in 1903, it became an immediate best-seller, scandalized Viennese society, and a year later was censored. Schnitzler was accused of pornography and worse. In 1922 Freud wrote to him that "you have learned through intuition-though actually as a result of sensitive introspection-everything that I have had to unearth by laborious work on other persons." By choosing characters across the social spectrum, La Ronde offers a powerful view of how sexual contact transgresses boundaries of class. Nicholas Rudall's new translation sensitively captures the language distinctions of the representative characters in the play while providing a remarkably playable script. New in the Plays for Performance series.

In a new translation and adaptation by Nicholas Rudall. Sacrificed to powers larger than himself, Woyzeck is one of drama s first anti-heroes. He serves a German captain and makes money by allowing a doctor to experiment on him, but his deeper morality leads him to a tragic end. Nicholas Rudall s new translation, like all of his work in the Plays for Performance series, captures the power of the play for contemporary audiences through its masterly translation.

Medea, whose magical powers helped Jason and the Argonauts take the Golden Fleece, remains one the strongest female characters ever to appear on stage. In the play she kills her own children-a desperate and powerful act. Nicholas Rudall's deft translation for contemporary audiences provides new insight into this classic story.

The tragedy of Oedipus, who unknowingly slays his father and marries his mother, is one of the mythical cornerstones of Western civilization. Nicholas Rudall's new translation remains true to Sophocles original text while fashioning a language of grace and power, with contemporary players and theatergoers in mind.

As bleak and agonizing a portrait of war as ever to appear on stage, The Trojan Women is a masterpiece of pathos as well as a timeless and chilling indictment of war's brutality. The only justice in war, Euripides seems to say, is punitive and nihilistic. Nicholas Rudall's compelling new translation continues his acclaimed work in interpreting classical drama for today's audiences.

"The classic drama of a daughter's revenge of her father's murder, in a brilliant new translation for modern audiences. Plays for Performance Series."

Sophocles classic drama of a daughter s revenge of her father s murder has been translated into playable language for modern audiences. As an example of Sophoclean tragedy, with its fatalistic acceptance of human doom, Electra is unsurpassed. It is, in addition, a potent metaphor for the current disintegration of some European nations.

A play of stinging contemporaneity--about religious and societal hypocrisy, guilt that feeds on innocence, the terror of the inevitable, and the battle between truth and darkness, freedom and constraint. Plays for Performance Series.

Ibsen's seminal play, which changed modern drama, is a searing view of a male-dominated and authoritarian society, presented with a realism that elevates theatre to a level above mere entertainment. The reverberations of Nora's slamming the door as she leaves Torvald continue to this present day. Nicholas Rudall, justly celebrated for his translations of Ibsen, again provides a play of power and speakability.

The tragedy of Oedipus who unknowingly slays his father and marries his mother, is one of the mythical cornerstones of Western civilization. This translation bears contemporary players and theatregoers in mind.