Plays & Playwrights Archives - The Queen's Reading Room

Plays & Playwrights

An interlude to explore some of the greatest plays of all time and the extraordinary people who create them and bring them to life on the stage.

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Gyles Brandreth reads for The Queen's Reading Room

On Quoting Shakespeare

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Fiona Shaw

Richard II

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Samuel West

On Shakespeare's Love

Christopher Marlowe

Doctor Faustus

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Director Maria Aberg

On Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest

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David Suchet

On The Importance of Being Earnest

George Bernard Shaw

Pygmalion

Anton Chekhov

The Seagull

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Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens

On Noel Coward's Private Lives

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Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens

In Private Lives

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Arthur Miller

On All My Sons

Susan Hill

The Woman in Black

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Alan Bennett

On The History Boys

Life of Pi - Behind the Scenes

Puppetry with Nick Barnes

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Online Exclusive

Mark Rylance On Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem - Full Interview

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Michael Morpurgo On War Horse - Full Interview

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Lolita Chakrabarti On Life of Pi - Full Interview

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Helen Edmundson On Small Island - Full Interview

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Tom Stoppard On Leopoldstadt - Full Interview

Books we explored

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