Contexts of British Plays - AP English Literature and Composition

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603). Most of Stoppard’s play takes place “offstage” or behind the scenes of the actions in Hamlet, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (two of Hamlet’s friends and courtiers) acting confused about what is happening onstage without them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first performed in 1966.

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), and William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I (1600) were all used as alternate answer choices.

The play was first staged in 1966 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Festival Fringe, the world's largest annual arts festival.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)shares many of its characters with Hamlet. Only Falstaff is not taken from Hamlet; he is a major character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I (1600).

The author is Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party (1958) is one of his most famous plays.

Morality plays were popular during medieval times. Pinter’s work was avant-garde, not antiquated, so we can infer that his work was categorized as comedy of menace, memory plays, and theater of the absurd.

Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1958) follows a former piano player named Stanley Webber through the events that transpire after two menacing strangers arrive at his birthday party. The rest of the characters appear in the play as well, but they are not the protagonist.

Although Harold Pinter produced a film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), the novel was originally written by John Fowles in 1969.

The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1965), Betrayal (1978), and The Room (1957) were all written by Harold Pinter.

Waiting for Godot (1953) is one of Samuel Beckett’s most famous plays.

The play was published in 1953.

Waiting for Godot (1953) is a prime exemplar of the theatre of the absurd movement, which features surreal situations, meaningless wordplay, examination of existential questions and nihilism, and a lack of clear resolutions.

Molloy is the title of a 1951 novel by Samuel Beckett, but it is not the name of a character in Waiting for Godot (1953).

The author is Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party (1958) is one of his most famous plays.

Morality plays were popular during medieval times. Pinter’s work was avant-garde, not antiquated, so we can infer that his work was categorized as comedy of menace, memory plays, and theater of the absurd.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)shares many of its characters with Hamlet. Only Falstaff is not taken from Hamlet; he is a major character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I (1600).

This play is written by Tom Stoppard.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603). Most of Stoppard’s play takes place “offstage” or behind the scenes of the actions in Hamlet, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (two of Hamlet’s friends and courtiers) acting confused about what is happening onstage without them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first performed in 1966.

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), and William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I (1600) were all used as alternate answer choices.

The play was first staged in 1966 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Festival Fringe, the world's largest annual arts festival.

Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1958) follows a former piano player named Stanley Webber through the events that transpire after two menacing strangers arrive at his birthday party. The rest of the characters appear in the play as well, but they are not the protagonist.

Although Harold Pinter produced a film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), the novel was originally written by John Fowles in 1969.

The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1965), Betrayal (1978), and The Room (1957) were all written by Harold Pinter.