A-Team 20th Century Play Summaries

Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw

Named after the Greek mythological sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture, this play is about a professor who decides to train a lower-class woman to become a duchess. Spoiler Alert: He falls in love with her!

Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

One of the most famous absurdist plays, this is about two men, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for the arrival of someone named Godot.

A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

Named after a line in a Langston Hughes poem, this play is about a black family in Chicago as they try to deal with an influx of money after a death in a family.

Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

The winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1949, this play is about Willy Loman, a childish salesman who often ''[tends] to imagine events from the past as if they are real" (Wikipedia).

The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

A memory-based play about Amanda Wingfield, who is an old Southern belle who tries raise her two children amid rough financial conditions.

A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams

The winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1948, this play is about Blanche DuBois, a woman who has lost her family estate and has to move in with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley. Drama ensues.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee

This play is about the breakdown of the marriage of a couple by the name of Martha and George.

The Crucible - Arthur Miller

An allegory of McCarthyism, this play is about the Salem Witch Trials.

Our Town - Thornton Wilder

This play is about the lives of the citizens of the small town of Grover's Corners.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams

This play is about the wealthy Pollitt family from Mississippi. Lots of drama ensues over the course of a single evening.