Top Ten Best Playwrights of All Time

The Top Ten
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

It's sad so many think Shakespeare is boring. There has been no other playwright who so understood man's strengths and weaknesses. And his command of the English language is unparalleled!

I was recently at a performance of the Scottish play. I was laughing at one part, and no one else got the humor, which was pure wordplay. He was really good at using comic relief to break the tension in an intense drama, and then building up the drama again.

All his plays grasp the human spirit in many ways, and his characters are so memorable that many of us think of them as real people or archetypes. Directors of his plays have interpreted them in various ways, and actors have played the characters in various ways.

The pleasures and enlightenments he gives us are endless and adaptable to any age and point of view.

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century.

His philosophical insights are simplistic, but he deserves credit for creating a vivid, cartoon-like dramatization of intellectual despair.

The heir to Joyce and one of very few writers to master both the dramatic and epic forms - a nonpareil playwright and novelist.

I never tire of his offbeat wit. I could read and watch his plays over and over and come away with a different feeling every time.

Euripides Euripides (c. 480 – c. 406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few whose plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles, and potentially Euphorion.
Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre.

There's a great bias against Ibsen in the U.S., where he is known primarily for A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler. His many other fine plays (Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, The Master Builder, etc.) are mostly forgotten.

Globally, however, he is one of the most respected and produced playwrights. By their own admissions, Arthur Miller and George Bernard Shaw would have been nobodies had it not been for Ibsen.

Henrik Ibsen, the father of modern drama and creator of A Doll's House, An Enemy of the People, and The Wild Duck, influenced Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, and August Strindberg. He deserves a higher position on this list.

P.S.
Why is August Strindberg not on this list?

Sophocles Sophocles (c. 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have... read more

Antigone, the greatest of all plays not written by Shakespeare, is as relevant today as it was then. How far can the state go in overriding family and religious obligations?

One of the rarest dramatists ever. We still couldn't write a play like him today.

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière (15 January 1622 – 17 February 1673), was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. He was the official author of court entertainments under the reign of Louis XIV.

He wrote under a pseudonym to avoid retribution from his critics.

Aeschylus Aeschylus (c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Academics' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays.

He created tragedy and is one of the few whose work has lasted over thousands of years.

The father of tragedy and still unrivaled!

The reek of human blood smiles out at me.

Luigi Pirandello

Since he is Italian, not many people consider him and his deeply innovative and revolutionary ideology. If read and understood with a critical attitude, he turns out to be a genius. Only Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, and probably Ibsen could beat him.

Ah yes, Italians are always overlooked. Just ask Leonardo da Vinci.

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist, and figure in 20th-century American theater. He was often in the public eye, particularly between the late 1940s and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified... read more

In all my years of high school education (currently a junior), Arthur Miller has been an excellent choice for projects in my AP American Lit class. His books flow like Nutella, unlike the banal, monotone literature received from more "elevated" and "scholarly" playwrights such as Shakespeare.

The Crucible is an absolutely brilliant work. All of Arthur Miller's plays are. I have not read a playwright that I appreciate the way I appreciate him. Even Shakespeare, who I passionately love, has not affected me the way Miller has.

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel... read more

I didn't even care about playwriting until I read "VERA." I was enchanted with the way Oscar Wilde wrote it! Of course, I afterwards kept reading his plays. Amazing, insightful, witty, and undoubtedly one of the best.

This man is the greatest prose writer. He was also a storyteller and writer, including The Model Millionaire.

#29!?!? Inconceivable! Easily one of the greatest playwrights. My top five would be Shakespeare, Beckett, Ibsen, Wilder, and Sophocles.

The Newcomers

? Ludvig Holberg
? Kaj Munk
The Contenders
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American playwright. Along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.

Nothing moves me like the plays of Williams. Played by amateurs or professionals, they always seem to work, unlike most other plays. The writing is exquisite, and the drama is compelling!

Yesterday I watched The Glass Menagerie, and that once more confirmed my view of Williams as a great dramatic poet.

The realism in his plays is fantastic. A genuine talent.

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history... read more

Yes, he must be within the top ten very easily. A theatrical equivalent of Rembrandt, he painted human life in darker tones unimaginably well.

Number two behind Will, no question. His ability to use the stage and create dramas, combined with consummate irony, is unparalleled.

Not sure how you can be a master of unending hopes, but he was certainly a great playwright.

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond.

Shaw was a towering figure and deserves to be much further up the list.

Kalidasa

This writer is especially brilliant in drama literature with the mind of a true genius.

I have always revered his work, apart from the comedies.

He is a better playwright than Shakespeare.

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas, père, was a French writer. His works have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors.
Jean Racine Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine (22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699), was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France (along with Molière and Corneille), and an important literary figure in the Western tradition.

Truly the greatest neo-classical writer. His myth-inspired plays combine great sparseness and economy of form with the purity and simple elegance of language in wrenching tragedies inspired by the tremendous passions of heroes and gods.

His greatest plays, Athalie, Phèdre, Iphigénie, Andromaque, and Bérénice, all portraits of major female figures of Greek and Hebraic legend, showcase vibrant energy and magnificently contained emotion.

Known by contemporaries as the Clean Racine.

Noel Coward

Noel Coward was a brilliant playwright and had a unique style that has lasted through the ages.

Dialogue like a crisply ironed white shirt.

Neil Simon

More human beings have seen Neil Simon's plays than any other playwright in history! That's #1, numero uno, the top dude. Even though Shakespeare had a 500-year head start and has always been produced and popular, Simon is still tops. Live with it!

Looked down upon by highbrows but a master of his craft.

Great humor and a wry tolerance of human frailty.

Christopher Marlowe

He only wrote a few plays, but those inspired many of Shakespeare's works. Without him, we might not have the Shakespeare we know today.

Alan Bennett

A quiet achiever. Nothing flashy about these plays, but they are deeply felt.

He can see quite clearly through those thick-lensed specs.

Northern drollery laced with melancholy.

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and... read more

One of the true-blue, old-style word bottlers.

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 – 9 May 1805) was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright.

He combines Shakespeare's human insight and depth with total mastery of classical forms.

Harold Pinter

The early plays are already classics, especially The Caretaker and The Homecoming. They are certainly among the greatest plays of the 20th century.

Giant of British playwrights. A unique talent.

In a class of his own. Comparisons are futile.

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 - November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg.

This is an indication of playing favorites and the sign of the times I am living in. O'Neill wrote good plays, great plays, and bad plays, but his life's work is his legacy.

A reminder that a play doesn't solve all of your problems is something that makes him my creative inspiration. He will always be number one on my list.

Perhaps the greatest American playwright. He wrote some of the most intense dramas of the 20th century.

How anyone could not have Eugene O'Neill in the top five is laughable.

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