50 Greatest Plays of The Past 100 Years (1913–2013)

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Entertainment Weekly, 50 Books

Entertainment Weekly lists the 50 greatest plays of the past 100 years. Here's the description from their website:

Stage plays can have the power to move us, make us laugh, and speak to the human condition more than most art forms. From Southern gothic character studies such as A Streetcar Named Desire to sprawling epics that encapsulate a specific place and time like Angels in America, the past century has seen some of our most defining stories originate on the stage for the benefit of rapt theatergoers.

Ahead, we've ranked what we believe to be the greatest plays of the past 100 years, with links to where you can purchase them all to read (though we encourage you to seek them out if any are being mounted on the stage in your area).

This list was originally published in 2013 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
12441 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 1962 American English
1306 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
3917 Fences August Wilson 1985 American English
7651 Angels In America Tony Kushner 1991 American English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
954 Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw 1913 British English
11304 A Raisin In The Sun Lorraine Hansberry 1959 American English
3052 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
1386 Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello 1921 Italian Italian
3458 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English
14232 Glengarry Glen Ross David Mamet 1984 American English
14985 August Tracy Letts 2008 American English
4653 True West Sam Shepard 1980 American English
2262 The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill 1946 American English
2738 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
2429 A View From The Bridge Arthur Miller 1955 American English
14162 The Little Foxes Lillian Hellman 1939 American English
14985 The Real Thing Tom Stoppard 1982 British English
13941 Master Harold...And The Boys Athol Fugard 1982 South African English
5990 The Homecoming Harold Pinter 1965 British English
14232 Ruined Lynn Nottage 2009 American English
1084 Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
14985 Six Degrees Of Separation John Guare 1990 American English
14232 Doubt John Patrick Shanley 2004 American English
3949 Top Girls Caryl Churchill 1982 British English
16681 Present Laughter Noel Coward 1942 British English
14232 Noises Off Michael Frayn 1982 British English
13938 Marat Sade Peter Weiss 1963 German German
14985 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore Martin McDonagh 2001 Irish English
13511 Machinal Sophie Treadwell 1928 American English
4986 The Norman Conquests Alan Ayckbourn 1973 British English
2247 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
14232 M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang 1988 American English
4805 The Dybbuk S. Ansky 1914 Russian Yiddish
7161 Saved Edward Bond 1965 British English
14232 Topdog Underdog Suzan-Lori Parks 2001 American English
14957 The Front Page Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur 1928 American English
14985 Accidental Death Of An Anarchist Dario Fo 1970 Italian Italian
14946 Picnic William Inge 1953 American English
16980 Journey’s End R. C. Sherriff 1929 British English
14942 The Odd Couple Neil Simon 1965 American English
17159 The Orphans’ Home Cycle Horton Foote 2009 American English
14205 The Women Clare Booth Luce 1936 American English
14197 What The Butler Saw Joe Orton 1969 British English
14209 Awake And Sing! Clifford Odets 1935 American English
17159 The Piano Lesson August Wilson 1987 American English
14985 Uncommon Women And Others Wendy Wasserstein 1977 American English
14985 The Weir Conor McPherson 1997 Irish English