Greatest Playwrights of All Time

Now I must preface this list with a fair warning that I have never quite been a major proponent of theater, specifically that of Broadway. However I do admire the classical Greek plays, and especially  the legendary Shakespeare plays. Perhaps I am just a classicist at heart, and maybe some day I may come to admire the modern works of theater. But nonetheless I can still give credit where credit is due, as both classic and modern playwrights are ultimately presenting artistic literature.

There are some who may say the work of a play can hardly be considered literature. After all it is written more as an instructional narrative that relies heavily on the performance of actors, the backdrop of a stage, props, and often musical compositions. It is the summation of all these parts that presents the story to the audience. It is a presentation quite similar to a movie that is very different than the experience shared in a book between the writer and the reader. (Side note, I will not be making a post regarding screen writers. Many screen writers also serve as directors or producers, and I have already written plenty on this film category).

Back to the debate of plays as literature however, ultimately in order for all the tools of a play to come together they need some form of source material. The play needs a setting, some dialogue, some conflict, some resolution, and all the necessary ingredients of a story. Ultimately a play needs a writer to write a story and thus the writer of plays can be considered a writer of literature. For that reason I shall include them in this series regarding great writers. This list will serve as a study for myself in a genre I am not quite as familiar with. I have come up with this ranking based on the consensus of scholarly opinions as well as the names I am most familiar with.


Honorable Mention


Euripides

Years: 74 (480 BC- 406 BC)
Nationality: Greek
Literary Style: Classical tragedy
Notable Works:

• Alcestis (438 BC)
• Medea (431 BC)
• Hippolytus (428 BC)
• Electra (420 BC)
• Heracles (416 BC)

Significance: In the age of classical Athens and the Hellenistic Age, playwrights competed with one another for the best stories. Euripides specialized in the accounts of tragedy similar to other famous Greek playwrights such Aeschylus and Sophocles. Much of his characters revolved around present day Athenians as opposed to the heroic and mythological representations. His work demonstrated great intellectualism in the likes of Socrates and he was often parodied by the comic playwright, Aristophanes. He has gone on to influence many other playwrights such as Ibsen, Strindberg, and George Bernard Shaw.


George Bernard Shaw

Years: 94 (1856-1950)
Nationality: Irish
Literary Style: Contemporary Satire, Historical Allegory
Notable Awards: Noble Prize for Literature (1925), Academy Award (1938)
Notable Works:

• Arms and the Man (1894)
• Ceaser and Cleopatra (1898)
• Man and Superman (1902)
• Major Barbara (1905)
• The Doctor's Dilema (1906)
• Pygmalion (1912)
• Saint Joan (1923)

Significance: He is one of several great Irish authors and playwrights also renown for his political activism. He demonstrated his religious and political insights thru a stream of successful plays in the early 1900s. However he was often quite controversial for his views regarding British involvement in WWI and WWII and is believed to have supported dictatorship regimes such as that of Mussolini and Stalin's. He demonstrated a unique blend of satire and historical allegory in his works that eventually won him a Noble Prize for literature in 1925 and an Academy Award in 1938.


Aristophanes

Years: 60 (446 BC- 386 BC)
Nationality: Greek
Literary Style: Old Comedy
Notable Works:

• The Clouds (423 BC)
• The Wasps (422 BC)
• The Birds (414 BC)
• Lysistrata (411 BC)
• The Women at the Thesmophoria Festival (411)
• The Frogs (405 BC)

Significance: He is regarded as the father of comedy and was a counter to the classical tragedy plays presented by other playwrights such as Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. He specialized in presenting real Athenians with stories regarding current local topics. He often ridiculed and made parodies of famous philosophers and tragedians of the time, including Euripides and Socrates. Many scholars often attribute his popular play, The Clouds, as a slanderous account that led to the execution of Socrates. Nonetheless Aristophanes was influential in ushering in the genre of comedy as well as providing a thorough window into classical Greek culture.


August Strindberg

Years: 63 (1849-1912)
Nationality: Sweden
Literary Style: Naturalism, Expressionism, Modernism
Notable Works:

• Master Olaf (1872)
• The Red Room (1879)
• The Father (1887)
• Miss Julie (1888)
• Inferno (1897)
• To Damascus (1898)
• The Dance of Death (1900)
• A Dream Play (1902)
• The Ghost Sonata (1908)

Significance: He is regarded as one of Sweden's most famous novelists and playwrights of all time. He was heavily influenced by the spiritualist ideas of Emmanuel Swedenborg and furthered naturalists themes presented by Henrik Ibsen. He was a very skilled intellect and artist, in the likes of William Blake, he was also a poet, painter, and essayist. He lived a very engaged life, often attuning to leftist politics of which he was inspired by the Paris Commune of 1971 and the work of Emile Zola. His most famous plays were that of Master Olaf, Miss Julie, and The Father and he went on to inspire many other notable playwrights such as Eugene O'Neil.

Aeschylus

Years: 67 (523 BC- 456 BC)
Nationality: Greek
Literary Style: Classical Tragedy
Notable Works:

• The Persians (472 BC)
• The Suppliants (470 BC)
• Seven Against Thebes (467 BC)
• Oresteia (458 BC)

Significance: He is often regarded as the father of tragedy however only 7 of his 90 suspected plays survive to this day. It is believed he played a significant role in expanding the amount of characters in a play and also demonstrating political themes of the times. His play The Persians was an account of the Greco-Persian Wars and the glorious victory at the Battle of Marathon. He is considered among the earliest of famous playwrights during the 6th century as the theater was just beginning to make it's introduction.




Top Ten Greatest Playwrights


10. Eugene O'Neil

Years: 65 (1888-1953)
Nationality: American
Literary Style: Realism
Notable Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1920, 1922, 1928, 1957) Noble Prize for Literature (1936)
Notable Works:

• Beyond the Horizon (1920)
• The Emperor Jones (1920)
• Anna Christie (1922)
• Desire Under the Elms (1924)
• Strange Interlude (1924)
• Mourning Becomes Electra (1931)
• Ah, Wilderness! (1933)
• Long Day's Journey into the Night (1956)

Significance: He is regarded among 3 of the greatest modern American playwrights along with Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. His masterpiece Long Day's Journey into the Night is considered one of the best plays in the history of American theater. He was influenced by the realism works of Anton Chekov, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg. During the early 1910s he spent time with a notable group of free-thinkers in Greenwich Village, most notably the founder of the American Communist Party, John Jack Reed. O'Neil was best known for his tragedy plays depicting characters falling into hopelessness, however he also produced several comedy plays.


9. Samuel Beckett

Years: 83 (1906-1989)

Nationality: Irish
University: Trinity College, Dublin
Literary Style: Tragicomedy, Minimalist
Notable Awards: Noble Prize for Literature (1969)
Notable Works:

• Murphy (1938)
• Molloy (1951)
• Malone Dias (1951)
• The Unnamable (1953)
• Waiting for Godot (1953)
• Watt (1953)
• Endgame (1957)
• Krapp's Last Tape (1958)
• How It Is (1960)
• Happy Days (1960)

Significance: Yet another highly regarded Irish novelist and playwright, Samuel Beckett is often considered the founder of absurd fiction. He specialized in tragicomedies presenting dark comedy and various themes of existentialism. Becket excelled as a child both academically and athletically as he was a top class cricket player. In college he demonstrated great interest in literature and met the recently famed Irish author, James Joyce. During the 1930s he began publishing his works of poetry and short stories as he traveled throughout Europe. He joined the French Resistance during WWII and afterwards began producing many of his famous plays in Paris. Becket went on to win a Noble Prize in 1969 and his work is celebrated for expanding the realist tradition into more abstract material.


8. Tennessee Williams

Years: 71 (1911-1983)

Nationality: American
University: University of Missouri, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Iowa
Literary Style: Realism
Notable Works:

• A Streetcar named Desire (1947)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
• The Night of the Iguana (1961)

Significance: He is regarded among the 3 greatest American playwrights of all time with Eugene O'Neil and Arthur Miller. His greatest claim to fame was Streetcar named Desire, which was later adapted into a critically acclaimed movie in 1951 starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. Originally named Thomas Lanier Williams he later adopted the pen name as Tennessee Williams. He was influenced by the plays of Anton Chekov and the writings of William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, and Ernest Hemingway. Much of his work was adapted in movies and he is also renown for his works of poetry, essays, and memoirs.


7. Oscar Wilde

Years: 46 (1854-1900) 
Nationality: Irish
University: Trinity College Dublin; Magalen College, Oxford
Literary Style: Aestheticism, Decadent movement
Notable Works:

• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
• Salome (1891)
• Lady Windemere's Fan (1892)
• A Woman of No Importance (1893)
• An Ideal Husband (1895)
• The Importance of Being Ernest (1895)

Significance: He is considered one of the all time greatest Irish playwrights and was also a well renown author, for his masterful novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde was born into a wealthy intellectual family in Dublin and was able to excel in his studies of literature and philosophy. By the 1880s he became affluent in notable social circles in London and developed himself a name as a notable journalist and essayist pertaining to the topic of aesthetics. Wilde's first major claim to fame came with the release of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which demonstrated his philosophical, hedonistic, and even homosexual lifestyle. In the 1890s he began to thrive as a playwright producing a string of successful tragedies and comedies, such as his most famous play The Importance of Being Ernest. However after the success of this play, he began accused of his homosexual relationships in a series of trials that lead to his eventual arrest for gross indecency. After two years in prison, Wilde exiled himself from Britain and Ireland and died shortly after in France due to meningitis. Despite his short life, his literary work and plays however are often regarded among the finest works in literature. 


6. Moliere

Years: 51 (1622-1673)

Nationality: French
University: College de Clermont (Lycee Louis-le-Grand)
Literary Style: Comedies, Farces, Tragicomedies
Notable Works:

• The Affected Ladies (1659)
• The School for Husbands (1661)
• The School for Wives (1662)
• Tartuffe (1664)
• Dom Juan (1665)

Significance: He is often considered as the French counterpart to England's William Shakespeare as he was the celebrated playwright of the French monarchy. Jean Baptiste Poquelin was born into prominence and thru notable patronage he was able to quickly ascend the ladder of the theater arts. He first began as an actor but after his studies he began his career as a playwright. He was soon frequently invited by the Sun King himself, King Louis XIV to perform his plays at the palace of Versailles and the Louvre. Moliere was granted permission by the king to open his own theater in Paris where he performed many successful pays. He later received the scorn of the Catholic church for his plays that depicted religious hypocrisy. He died of a tuberculosis at the young age of 51 however his work went on to influence many great French thinkers and writers such as Alexander Dumas. His legacy lives on today in Paris with the long standing Comedie-Francaise, also known as the House of Moliere, which is a state founded public theater celebrating his legendary status upon French art and culture.


5. Arthur Miller

Years: 89 (1915-2005)
Nationality: American
University: University of Michigan
Literary Style: Realism, Symbolism, Expressionist
Notable Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949)
Notable Works:

• All My Sons (1947)
• Death of a Salesman (1949)
• The Crucible (1953)
• A View from the Bridge (1955)
• The Misfits (1961)

Significance: He is regarded as one of the all time greatest American playwrights, having produced over 50 works of note. His greatest play Death of a Salesman was considered his magnum opus which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949. He lived a very engaging life, born of Jewish descent in New York City, he quickly displayed a knack for writing and journalism. After he completed his studies at the University of Michigan he returned to New York City to begin producing numerous successful plays. One of the most controversial of his plays was The Crucible, which concerned the Salem Witch Trials. As a Communist sympathizer, Miller wrote the play as a historical allegory to the harsh purge brought on by McCarthyism. Arthur Miller is also renown for his contributions to Hollywood, writing several screenplays most notably The Misfits in 1961, which starred his wife at the time, the iconic Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn however was struggling with drugs at the time, and ended the marriage shortly after the film and died a year later. Despite his controversial dealings with Communism, and his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller has gone on be one of the most recognizable names in American theater. His works demonstrated realistic social and political themes with elements of symbolism.


4. Sophocles

Years: 90 (497 BC- 405 BC)
Nationality: Greek
Literary Style: Classical tragedy
Notable Works:

• Ajax (5th century BC)
• Antigone (441 BC)
• Women of Trachis (5th century BC)
• Oedipus Rex (429 BC)
• Electra (5th century BC)
• Philoctetes (409 BC)
• Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC)

Significance: He is considered one of the greatest of the classic Greek Tragedians most notably for his masterpiece play of Oedipus Rex. This famous play revolves around a mythological Greek king of Thebes, who is driven mad when he discovers he has killed his father and married his mother. This famous play demonstrates Sophocles' masterful dramatization of mythological tales. He is credited with expanding the dialogue of actors on stage. During his time playwrights competed with one another and Sophocles was the undisputed champion of Athens, winning 24 of the 30 competitions he competed in. The only other playwrights close to his level were that of Aeschylus and Euripides.


3. Anton Chekov

Years: 44 (1860-1904)
Nationality: Russian
University: First Moscow State Medical University
Literary Style: Modernism
Notable Works:

• Ivanov (1887)
• The Seagull (1895)
• Uncle Vanya (1899)
• Three Sisters (1901)
• The Lady with the Dog (1903)
• The Cherry Orchard (1904)

Significance: He was born into a devout Orthodox Christian family and excelled in academic studies. However his father was declared bankrupt and Chekov pursued a career in medical studies to support his family. He still however made meager pay as a physician and chose not to charge the poor seeking treatment. While Chekov used his medical practice to get by financially, his true passion was literature. By the 1880s he had begun publishing short stories for various newspapers that begun attracting him attention. By 1887 he was commissioned to right his first play, Ivanov which was praised in Moscow. He followed these up with other successful plays such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and the Cherry Orchard. He did not take well to criticism however Chekov's plays demonstrated the first modern format of realistic dialogue among character actors.  By the 1890s he became a celebrated Russian playwright and kept close ties with other famous writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky. In 1903 he wrote one of his most famous short stories, The Lady with the Dog, which was said to inspire Vladimir Nabokov's literary works. Chekov died at the young age of 44 due to tuberculosis, however his plays and short stories are regarded among the finest examples of modernist literature. 


2. Henrik Ibsen

Years: 78 (1828-1906)

Nationality: Norwegian
Literary Style: Modernism, Realism, Naturalism
Notable Works:

• Brand (1867)
• Peer Gynt (1867)
• Emperor and Galilean (1873)
• A Doll's House (1879)
• Ghosts (1881)
• An Enemy of the People (1882)
• The Wild Duck (1884)
• Hedda Gabler (1891)
• The Master Builder (1893)
• When we Dead Awaken (1899)

Significance: He is often regarded as the greatest playwright of the modern era, and the father of realism. His plays are the most frequently performed only after that of William Shakespeare. His work demonstrates his humble upbringing thru a merchant family and demonstrates contemporary and realism themes. Many of his plays deal with financial struggles and represent societal conditions which he relates to his home land of Skien Norway. In his later work he demonstrated more scandalous and complex works such as A Doll's House and The Wild Duck which were some of the first successful tragic- comedies. His plays and poetry went on to inspire many playwrights to follow such as George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Eugene O'Neil.


1. William Shakespeare

Years: 52 (1564-1616)
Nationality: English
Literary Style: Comedies, histories, tragedies, tragicomedies
Notable Works:

• The Two Gentleman of Verona (1589)
• Merchant of Venice (1596)
• Romeo and Juliet (1597)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Hamlet (1599)
• Othello (1603)
• King Lear (1605)
• Macbeth (1606)
• The Tempest (1610)

Significance: He is regarded as the undisputed English master of writing, from stories, poetry, to plays. His career as a dramatist began at the age of 18 when he left his countryside wife of Anne Hathaway to pursue a career in the theater business of London. This was an era of English Renaissance brought about by Queen Elizabeth's golden reign. Shakespeare displayed great ambition for the theater and was quickly able to climb as an actor, writer, and owner of a company. Known as the Lord Chamberlains Men and later The King's Men he began producing many popular plays throughout London for the rest of his career. He wrote on various genres from romance, history, comedy, to tragedy including 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. Many of his famous plays were attended by the queen herself. Some of his most famous plays include that of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth which are some of the most frequent plays performed to this day. His influence spanned beyond the theater and inspired many famous works of poetry and literature. He is regarded as an icon of English culture and without question the greatest playwright to have ever lived.