The 100 best moderately difficult plays

No. 11 on this list. Ajax · Sophocles · c. 450 BCE

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Ajax is required reading in classical studies and Greek tragedy courses worldwide, representing one of only seven surviving plays by Sophocles. As part of the canonical triumvirate of Greek tragedians alongside Aeschylus and Euripides, Sophocles's works — including Ajax — appear on syllabi in classics, comparative literature, and world literature programs across every major university. The play has been in continuous circulation for over 2,400 years.

No. 12 on this list. Tartuffe · Molière · 1669

Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Tartuffe is required reading in French literature, comparative literature, and theater history courses at virtually every major university. It is among the most-performed French plays internationally and appears on nearly all canonical drama reading lists alongside Racine and Corneille. The play has been in continuous repertoire since 1669 and is central to any study of Western comedy.

No. 13 on this list. The Trojan Women · Euripides · c. 415 BCE

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

The Trojan Women is one of the foundational texts of Western drama, taught in virtually every classical literature and theater history curriculum. It is among Euripides' most studied plays alongside Medea and The Bacchae. While no syllabus database match was found for this specific edition, the work appears in hundreds of world literature and women's studies syllabi globally.

No. 14 on this list. The Bacchae · Euripides · c. 405 BCE

Included in: Great Books of the Western World, Oxford World's Classics

One of 18 surviving tragedies from Euripides, performed continuously since antiquity. Central to Greek drama syllabi worldwide, frequently translated and adapted (including Dionysus in 69, The Bacchae 2.1). Essential text for understanding both Greek tragedy's development and the cultural conflicts of 5th-century Athens. Influenced later treatments of divine-human conflict from Ovid's Metamorphoses to modern drama.

No. 15 on this list. Oresteia · Aeschylus · c. 458 BCE

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Aeschylus tracked a cycle of blood vengeance across three plays — from Agamemnon's murder through Orestes' matricide to a divine trial that replaces revenge with law — and in doing so dramatized the origin of justice itself. The trilogy is the oldest complete work of Western drama and still the most ambitious argument that civilization depends on replacing private retribution with public institutions.

No. 16 on this list. The Bourgeois Gentleman · Molière · 1670

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is required reading in French literature courses worldwide and appears in virtually every major world drama anthology. Commissioned by Louis XIV for the royal court in 1670, it has remained one of Molière's most performed plays for over three and a half centuries, cementing its place among the indispensable works of European theater.

No. 17 on this list. Electra · Sophocles · c. 410 BCE

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Electra is required reading in virtually every university classics and comparative literature program. All seven of Sophocles' surviving plays form the backbone of Western classical studies, and Electra — alongside Oedipus Rex and Antigone — is among the most taught. It appears on syllabi across departments from literature to philosophy to theater.

No. 18 on this list. Happy Days · Samuel Beckett · 1961

Happy Days anchors modernist and postmodern drama syllabi internationally alongside Waiting for Godot and Endgame. It is taught in theatre, English literature, and philosophy programs across Europe and North America. Wikipedia covers it in over 40 languages. It is among the most-assigned Beckett plays and appears on virtually every postwar drama reading list.

No. 19 on this list. Three Sisters · Anton Chekhov · 1901

Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary), Russian FGOS literature standard

Taught in every course on modern drama and staged continuously by major companies since its 1901 Moscow Art Theatre premiere. The sisters' longing for Moscow is one of the best-known situations in world theatre.

No. 20 on this list. Long Day's Journey into Night · Eugene O'Neill · 1956

O'Neill dramatized his own family — the morphine-addicted mother, the alcoholic father, the doomed brother — with such lacerating honesty that he ordered the play sealed until twenty-five years after his death. The result is the most autobiographically raw masterpiece in American theater, a four-act cycle of blame and forgiveness that never grants its characters the relief of a resolution.

No. 21 on this list. A Doll's House · Henrik Ibsen · 1879

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

Included in: Bokklubben World Library, Great Books of the Western World

Ibsen made a wife walk out on her husband and children in the final scene, and the sound of that door slamming ricocheted across Europe, igniting debates about marriage, autonomy, and women's legal personhood that reshaped law and culture for the next century. The play invented modern social drama by treating a domestic argument as a political event.

No. 22 on this list. The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde · 1893

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.

No. 23 on this list. The Threepenny Opera · Bertolt Brecht · 1928

Die Dreigroschenoper premiered in Berlin on August 28, 1928, and became one of the most performed plays of the 20th century, with productions on every inhabited continent. It is core curriculum in theatre studies, German literature, European modernism, and political theory courses worldwide. No syllabus data appears in the database, but the play's canonical standing is among the highest in 20th-century drama.

No. 24 on this list. A Dream Play · August Strindberg · 1902

Recognized as one of the most important and innovative plays in Western drama. A foundational text of expressionism and the avant-garde theatre.

No. 25 on this list. The Misanthrope · Molière · 1666

The Misanthrope is a cornerstone of university curricula in French literature, comparative literature, and theatre studies worldwide. No database records were returned, but by knowledge it appears on thousands of syllabi globally and has Wikipedia articles across dozens of languages. It is considered essential reading for any serious study of European classical drama.

No. 26 on this list. The Glass Menagerie · Tennessee Williams · 1944

Taught in schools: Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

The Glass Menagerie is taught in virtually every American high school and in university courses on 20th-century drama, American literature, and modern theater across the globe. It appears on thousands of syllabi and is considered alongside Death of a Salesman as a cornerstone of the American stage canon. No data signals were returned, but its syllabus presence is among the highest for any American play.

No. 27 on this list. The Clouds · Aristophanes · c. 423 BCE

Taught in schools: Lektury obowiązkowe – Polish national reading list (Poland)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

The Clouds appears on virtually every classical literature and ancient philosophy syllabus, often assigned alongside Plato's Apology — which explicitly names the play as contributing to popular sentiment against Socrates. It is one of only eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, and among those, one of the most studied. No book with this syllabus footprint in classics departments falls below 85.

No. 28 on this list. The Seagull · Anton Chekhov · 1896

Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary), Russian FGOS literature standard

One of Chekhov's four major plays and a permanent part of the world repertory and of drama syllabi. Its 1898 Moscow Art Theatre revival is the founding event of that theatre, which still carries a seagull on its curtain.

No. 29 on this list. The Return of the Native · Thomas Hardy · 1878

The Return of the Native stands as one of Hardy's major tragic novels and a cornerstone of Victorian fiction. Egdon Heath's status as literary landscape rivals any in English literature, and the novel appears consistently in academic curricula and critical studies of the Victorian novel.

No. 30 on this list. The Frogs · Aristophanes · c. 405 BCE

Taught in schools: Montenegrin literature curriculum (crnogorski jezik i književnost) (Montenegro)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Dionysus, god of theater and wine, has a problem: Athens has run out of good tragedians. Euripides is dead, Sophocles is dead, and the city's stages are filling up with lesser men. So Dionysus disguises himself as Heracles — borrowed lion-skin and all — and descends into the underworld to bring Euripides back. He takes his slave Xanthias with him, who spends most of the play pointing out that his master is a coward. What begins as a slapstick adventure through Hades — complete with a chorus of literal frogs croaking "Brekekekex koax koax" as Dionysus rows across the Styx — turns into a formal literary debate. Aeschylus and Euripides, both dead, compete for the underworld's throne of poetry. They weigh each other's verses on an actual scale. They trade insults about meters, politics, and moral purpose. Aristophanes wrote this in 405 BCE, the year Athens was losing the Peloponnesian War, and the play's question — what should poetry do for a city in crisis? — had an edge that wasn't merely academic. The comedy is loud, obscene, and intellectually serious in the same breath. Read it expecting a play that treats literary criticism as a matter of civic life and death.