This is a list of some classic playwrights and their most famous works. This is not an exhaustive list, as there are many other brilliant playwrights throughout history.
Ancient Greece:
* Aeschylus: *The Persians*, *Seven Against Thebes*, *Prometheus Bound*, *The Oresteia* (trilogy)
* Sophocles: *Antigone*, *Oedipus Rex*, *Oedipus at Colonus*, *Electra*, *Ajax*
* Euripides: *Medea*, *The Bacchae*, *The Trojan Women*, *Hippolytus*, *Alcestis*
* Aristophanes: *Lysistrata*, *The Birds*, *The Frogs*, *The Clouds*, *The Wasps*
Roman Empire:
* Plautus: *Pseudolis*, *Miles Gloriosus*, *The Menaechmi*, *The Captives*, *The Pot of Gold*
* Terence: *The Brothers*, *The Self-Tormentor*, *The Eunuch*, *Phormio*, *The Mother-in-Law*
* Seneca: *Medea*, *Oedipus*, *Hercules Oetaeus*, *Phaedra*, *Thyestes*
Renaissance:
* William Shakespeare: *Hamlet*, *Romeo and Juliet*, *Macbeth*, *King Lear*, *Othello*, *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, *Much Ado About Nothing*, *As You Like It*, *Twelfth Night*, *The Tempest*, *Henry V*, *Richard III*
* Christopher Marlowe: *Doctor Faustus*, *The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus*, *Tamburlaine the Great*, *Edward II*, *The Jew of Malta*
* Ben Jonson: *Volpone*, *The Alchemist*, *Every Man in His Humour*, *Epicoene, or The Silent Woman*, *The Staple of News*
* Lope de Vega: *Fuenteovejuna*, *The Dog in the Manger*, *Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña*, *The Knight of Olmedo*, *The Star of Seville*
* Pedro Calderón de la Barca: *Life is a Dream*, *The Mayor of Zalamea*, *The Divine Narcissus*, *House of Desires*, *The Great Theatre of the World*
17th and 18th Centuries:
* Molière: *Tartuffe*, *The Misanthrope*, *The School for Wives*, *The Imaginary Invalid*, *Don Juan*
* John Dryden: *All for Love*, *The Conquest of Granada*, *Marriage à la Mode*, *The Spanish Friar*, *Aureng-Zebe*
* Jean Racine: *Andromaque*, *Phèdre*, *Britannicus*, *Bérénice*, *Iphigénie*
* Pierre Corneille: *Le Cid*, *Horace*, *Cinna*, *Polyeucte*, *The Liar*
* Oliver Goldsmith: *She Stoops to Conquer*, *The Good-Natur'd Man*
* Richard Brinsley Sheridan: *The School for Scandal*, *The Rivals*, *A Trip to Scarborough*
19th and 20th Centuries:
* Henrik Ibsen: *A Doll's House*, *Hedda Gabler*, *Ghosts*, *An Enemy of the People*, *The Wild Duck*
* Anton Chekhov: *Uncle Vanya*, *The Cherry Orchard*, *The Seagull*, *Three Sisters*, *The Proposal*
* August Strindberg: *Miss Julie*, *The Father*, *The Ghost Sonata*, *A Dream Play*, *Easter*
* George Bernard Shaw: *Pygmalion*, *Saint Joan*, *Man and Superman*, *Major Barbara*, *Candida*
* Oscar Wilde: *The Importance of Being Earnest*, *Lady Windermere's Fan*, *Salomé*, *An Ideal Husband*
* Tennessee Williams: *A Streetcar Named Desire*, *The Glass Menagerie*, *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof*, *Sweet Bird of Youth*, *Suddenly, Last Summer*
* Arthur Miller: *Death of a Salesman*, *The Crucible*, *All My Sons*, *A View from the Bridge*, *After the Fall*
* Eugene O'Neill: *Long Day's Journey into Night*, *The Iceman Cometh*, *Desire Under the Elms*, *Mourning Becomes Electra*, *A Moon for the Misbegotten*
* Samuel Beckett: *Waiting for Godot*, *Endgame*, *Happy Days*, *Krapp's Last Tape*, *Play*
* Harold Pinter: *The Birthday Party*, *The Caretaker*, *The Homecoming*, *Betrayal*, *The Dumb Waiter*
* Edward Albee: *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*, *The Zoo Story*, *A Delicate Balance*, *Seascape*, *Three Tall Women*
* Tom Stoppard: *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead*, *Arcadia*, *Jumpers*, *The Real Inspector Hound*, *Travesties*
* David Mamet: *Glengarry Glen Ross*, *American Buffalo*, *Speed-the-Plow*, *Oleanna*, *Sexual Perversity in Chicago*
This list includes some of the most renowned playwrights and their most popular works. Each playwright offers a unique perspective and style, making them essential to the development and evolution of theatre.