Osborne's Look Back in Anger, first performed in 1957, established the playwright and ushered in a new movement in British drama focusing on realistic, often squalid portrayals of working-class life. It features "angry young man" Jimmy Porter who stands at the threshold between lower class and middle class but sees his upward climb threatened by those with greater privilege.

The structure and style of Luther takes its shape from German playwright Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo (1943). Renaissance scientist Galileo is forced to recant his theories that the earth revolves around the sun rather than the reverse. The play explores the conflict between scientific truth and religious authority.

George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan (1923) chronicles the life of Joan of Arc: her leadership of French troops in victory against the English invaders; her capture by the English and conviction of heresy; and...