Plays

This guide shows you how to find print and electronic plays to read as well as streamed recordings and DVDs of performances to watch.

Finding plays and recorded performances using Library Search

Search for plays by title or playwrights by name, using the Advanced Search option in Library Search.  This will help you: 

  • find plays in anthologies as well as those published separately 

  • find DVDs and streamed TV recordings to watch online 

Use the format filter within Library Search to limit your results to printed plays (print book), electronic plays (eBook), online recorded performances (eVideo) and DVDs  

Finding plays on the Library shelves

Find plays in A-Z order by playwright at each number below, e.g. all Pinter’s plays are together at 822.914/PIN. 

Find books about the plays in A-Z order after the plays themselves, e.g. Martin Esslin’s books about Pinter’s works are together at 822.914/PIN/ESS.  

American Plays   812.54 

British Plays:

  • Shakespeare   822.33 
  • Restoration theatre 822.408 
  • 18th century   822.6 
  • 19th century   822.8 
  • 20th century before 1945 822.912 
  • 20th century after 1945 822.914 
  • 21st century 822.92 

European plays translated to English: 

  • Bertolt Brecht   832.912BRE 
  • Samuel Beckett  842.914BEC 
  • Luigi Pirandello 852.912PIR 
  • Dario Fo  852.914FO 
  • Garcia Lorca 862.2GAR

  • Drama Online

    Drama Online 

    Recommended for: Plays, Books, Film and documentaries, Images

    Read plays and watch performances. Find stills of performances and information about acting, plays and playwrights

    Drama Online is a high-quality online research tool for drama and literature students, researchers, and teachers. The Core Collection forms the heart of Drama Online. With over 1,775 playtexts and more added each year, this collection is truly the foundation of the platform and offers a diverse and rich catalogue of plays by the world’s leading dramatists

    We have access to the following collections: Core Collection, most of Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, BBC Drama Films & Documentaries, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, most of the RSC Live collection, Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 1 & 2, Stage on Screen, National Theatre Collection 1

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  • Digital Theatre Plus

    Digital Theatre Plus

    Recommended for: Plays

    Find plays and productions, theory and criticism, practice and practitioners, teaching resources.

  • Historical plays online

    Historical Texts

    Browse by playwright or search by title of the play to see digital copies of original publications from the late 15th century to the 19th century.

    The service includes content from three early book collections:

    • EEBO (Early English Books Online) - books published in English up to 1700
    • ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) - books published in Great Britain and its colonies during the eighteenth century
    • 19th Century books from the British Library collection
    • Also has the UK Medical Heritage Library collection

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  • Other sources of plays online

    Project Gutenberg

    Project Gutenberg is the Internet’s oldest producer of free electronic books. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.

    Search for names of playwrights, titles of plays or for the word “plays” in the book titles.

    MIT Global Shakespeare Project

    Established 1997, this site provides access to the complete set of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry.