| 475 BC–425 BC | Greece | In the 50 years that follow the end of the Persian Wars, the Greek city-state of Athens reaches the zenith of its greatness. In addition to its empire and political power, creative and intellectual culture flourish. The great tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are writing, as is the comic playwright Aristophanes. The sculptor Phidias supervises the construction of the frieze on the Parthenon, and the painter Polygnotus decorates the wall of the Stoa (the colonnade in the marketplace) with murals. Athens is now one of the main commercial centres of the eastern Mediterranean. |
| 472 BC | Greece | The earliest extant play of the Athenian tragedian Aeschylus, Persae/Persians, describing the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, wins the Athenian tragedy prize. Aeschylus gained firsthand experience of the wars, having fought at the Battle of Marathon and, probably, at the Battle of Salamis. |
| 468 BC | Greece | Athenian tragedian Sophocles defeats Aeschylus in the contest for tragedy at the Dionysia festival in Athens. Of Sophocles's 120 plays, only seven survive, and of those only two can be dated accurately, Philoctetes, dated from 409 BC and Oedipus at Colonos, produced posthumously in 401 BC, both of which win prizes. The remaining five plays are Ajax, probably written in the period 451–444 BC, Antigone and Trachiniae, which are dated after 441 BC, and Electra and Oedipus Tyrannus, probably written in the period 430–415 BC. An eighth play, the satyr-drama Ichneutai/Trackers, survives in fragments. |
| 458 BC | Greece | The trilogy Oresteia, by the Athenian dramatist Aeschylus, is performed. It comprises Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and Eumenides. |
| 455 BC | Greece | The first play by the Athenian tragic dramatist Euripides, Daughters of Pelias, comes third at the Dionysia, a competition held in honour of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, in Athens. |
| 423 BC | Greece | The play The Clouds, by the Greek comedy dramatist Aristophanes, is produced. It includes ridicule of the Athenian philosopher Socrates. |
| 411 BC | Greece | The comedy Lysistrata, by the Greek comedy dramatist Aristophanes, voices the war-weariness of Athens. Women in the play withdraw sex in order try to force their menfolk to make peace. |
| 191 BC | Rome | The Latin comic poet Plautus produces his play Pseudolus. He bases his plays on Greek originals, but adapts them to Roman tastes. Twenty of his plays survive to modern times. |
| 166 BC | Rome | The Latin comic poet Terence produces his first play The Girl from Andros. Five other plays follow, his last being The Brothers in 160 BC. |
| 1160 | France | Jean Bodel's Le Jeu de St Nicholas/The Play of St Nicholas, the oldest extant miracle play in French literature, is performed at Arras, France. |
| c. 1250 | England | The Harrowing of Hell, the earliest extant miracle play in English literature, is recorded. It is based on the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. |
| c. 1300 | China | Chinese playwright Guan Han-qing is active. Regarded as China's greatest classical dramatist, his most important works include Snow in Midsummer. |
| c. 1340 | England | The York Cycle of mystery plays – a set of religious plays performed annually by the citizens of York, England – is written. |
| 1 September 1443 | Japan | Japanese dramatist Seami Motokiyo, perhaps the greatest of the No dramatists, dies. He was the son of Kan'ami Kiyotsugo, one of the founding figures of No. Motokiyo wrote nearly half of the classic No repertoire, as well as essays on the theatre, including the major work Kadensho/Book of the Flowery Tradition. |
| 1513 | Italy | Italian political writer Niccolò Machiavelli writes two of his best-known works: the play La mandragola/The Mandrake Root, a comedy; and Il Principe/The Prince, a treatise on government, which is published in 1532. |
| 1516 | England | The English poet John Skelton writes Magnyfycence, the first secular morality play in English. It is published posthumously in 1533. |
| 1520 | England, Netherlands | The morality play Everyman, based on the Dutch morality play Elckerlijk of about 1495, appears in English. |
| 1533 | England | The English poet and dramatist John Heywood publishes several plays, including The Play of the Wether and A Mery Play Between the Pardoner, the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte.Heywood's Tudor ‘interludes’ (short drama entertainments) prepare English theatre for the fully developed comedies of the Elizabethans. |
| 1541 | Italy | Italian humanist Giambattista Cinzio Giraldi writes Orbeche, the first Italian tragedy based on classical models to be performed in Renaissance Italy. |
| 1561 | England | The play Gorboduc by the English dramatists Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, is first performed, in London, England. The earliest English tragedy in blank verse, it was published in 1565. |
| 1567 | England | The play Ralph Roister Doister, written by the English dramatist and schoolmaster Nicholas Udall in the 1550s, is published. It is the earliest known original English comedy. |
| c. 1589 | England | The play The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe is first performed, in London, England, played by the Earl of Nottingham's Men (formerly the Admiral's Men). It is first published in 1604. |
| 1598 | England | The comedy Every Man in his Humour by the English dramatist Ben Jonson is first performed, in London, England. It is presented by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, with William Shakespeare as one of the actors. It is first published in 1600. |
| 1601 | Spain | The Spanish dramatist Lope Félix de Vega (Carpio) publishes the comedy El castigo del discreto/The Wise Man's Punishment. |
| c. 1605 | England | The tragedy Othello, the Moor of Venice by the English dramatist William Shakespeare is first performed, in London, England. It is first published in 1622. |
| c. 1606 | England | The comedy Volpone, or The Fox by the English dramatist Ben Jonson is first performed, in London, England, played by the King's Men. It is first published in 1607. |
| 1608 | England | The play The Revenger's Tragedy (probably by the English dramatist Cyril Tourneur) is published. It is one of the finest of the Jacobean ‘revenge tragedies’. |
| 1630 | England | The tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by the English dramatist John Ford is first performed, in London, England. It is first published in 1633. |
| 1634 | Bavaria, Germany | The German Oberammergau Passion Play is inaugurated by the people of the village of Oberammergau in Bavaria. They make a vow to perform the play every ten years after an outbreak of plague in 1633. |
| 1636 | France | The tragedy Le Cid by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille is first performed, in Paris, France. It is published in the same year. |
| c. 1636 | Spain | The tragi-comedy La vida es sueño/Life is a Dream by the Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca is first performed. It is one of the major works of Spanish drama. |
| 1664 | France | Two comedies, Le Tartuffe, ou l'imposteur/Tartuffe, or the Impostor (first published in 1669) and Le Mariage forcé/The Enforced Marriage, by the French dramatist Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) are first performed. |
| 1728 | UK | The comedy The Provoked Husband, left unfinished by the English dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh and completed by the English dramatist Colly Cibber, is first performed, in London, England. |
| 1762 | Italy, Venice | The comedy Le baruffe chiozzotte/Quarrels at Chioggia by the Italian writer Carlo Goldoni is performed, in Venice, Italy. One of his finest works, it is a comedy of the lower classes. |
| 1773 | England | The comedy She Stoops to Conquer, by the English writer Oliver Goldsmith, is first performed, in London, England. |
| 1775 | France | The play The Barber of Seville by the French writer Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais is produced in Paris, France, after two years' prohibition on the grounds that it was seditious. |
| 1775 | Ireland, England | The comedy The Rivals, by the Irish dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is first performed, in London, England. |
| 1778 | UK | The comedy School for Scandal by the Irish writer Richard Brinsley Sheridan is performed, in London, England. |
| 1779 | UK | The comedy The Critic by the Irish writer Richard Brinsley Sheridan is performed, in London, England. |
| 1779 | Germany | The German writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing publishes his verse play Nathan der Weise/Nathan the Wise, a plea for religious tolerance. |
| 1784 | France | The play Le Mariage de Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro by the French writer Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais is performed, in Paris, France. An unparalleled success, it is used in 1786 as the basis of Mozart's opera. |
| 1804 | Germany | The play Wilhelm Tell by the German writer Friedrich Johann Christoph von Schiller is first performed, in Weimar, Germany. |
| 1808 | Germany | The comedy Der zerbrochene Krug/The Broken Jug by the German dramatist Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist is first performed, produced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Weimar, Germany. |
| 1832 | France | The tragedy Le Roi s'amuse/The King Amuses Himself by the French writer Victor Hugo is first performed, in Paris, France. It later provides the basis for the opera Rigoletto, which is written in 1851 by the Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi. |
| 1835 | Germany | The German writer Georg Büchner writes his play Dantons Tod/Danton's Death. It is published in 1850 and first performed in 1902. |
| 1836 | Russia | The satire Revizor/The Government Inspector by the Russian writer Nikolay (Vasilyevich) Gogol is first performed, in Moscow, Russia. |
| 1867 | Norway | The Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen publishes his verse play Peer Gynt. It is first performed in 1876. |
| 1879 | Norway | The play El dukkehjem/The Doll's House by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen is first performed, in Christiania (now Oslo) in Norway. |
| 1885 | Norway | The play Vildanden/The Wild Duck, and the verse play Brand, by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen, are first performed in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. Brand was written in 1886. |
| 1889 | Denmark | The play Fröken Julie/Miss Julie by the Swedish writer Johan August Strindberg is first performed, in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was published in 1888. |
| 1893 | Norway | The play Bygmester Solness/The Master Builder, by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen, is first performed, in Trondheim, Norway. |
| 1895 | UK | The comedy The Importance of Being Earnest by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde is first performed, at the St James Theatre in London, England. |
| 1897 | Ireland, USA | The play The Devil's Disciple by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw is first performed, at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City. |
| 1898 | Russian Empire | A revised version of the 1896 play Chayka/The Seagull by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov is performed in Moscow, Russia. Directed by Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky, this is the first production of the Moscow Art Theatre. |
| 1901 | | The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw publishes his play Caesar and Cleopatra, which is first performed in 1906 in Berlin, Germany. |
| 1904 | | The children's play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, by the Scottish writer J M Barrie, is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, England. |
| 1904 | | The play Vishnovy sad/The Cherry Orchard, by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, is first performed in Moscow, Russia. |
| 1905 | | The plays Major Barbara and Man and Superman, by the Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw, are first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. |
| 1907 | | The play Playboy of the Western World, by the Irish dramatist John Millington Synge, is first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Its depiction of Irish life offended many in the audience and fights break out at several performances. |
| 1914 | | The play Pygmalion, by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, is first performed at His Majesty's Theatre in London, England. A German version was previously performed in Vienna, Austria, in 1913. |
| 1921 | Italy | The play Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore/Six Characters in Search of an Author, by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello, is first performed, in Rome, Italy. |
| 1921 | Czechoslovakia | The play R U R: Rossum's Universal Robots, by the Czech writer Karel Capek, is first performed, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It popularizes the word ‘robot’, from the Czech word ‘robota’, meaning ‘compulsory labour’. |
| 1924 | USA | The play Desire under the Elms, by the US dramatist Eugene O'Neill, is first performed, at the Greenwich Village Theater in New York City. All God's Chillun Got Wings receives also its first performance in the same year. |
| 1924 | Ireland | The play Juno and the Paycock, by the Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey, is first performed, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. |
| 1929 | United Kingdom | The play Journey's End, by the English dramatist R C Sherriff, is first performed, at the Savoy Theatre in London, England. It becomes a classic depiction of World War I. |
| 1930 | United Kingdom | The play Private Lives, by the English writer and performer Noël Coward, is first performed, at the Phoenix Theatre in London, England. |
| 1931 | | The play Mourning Becomes Electra, by the US writer Eugene O'Neill, is first performed, in the Guild Theater in New York City. Set in Puritan New England, it is a retelling of the Ancient Greek trilogy the Oresteia, by Aeschylus. |
| 1934 | | The play La Machine infernale/The Infernal Machine, an adaptation of the Oedipus myth by the French writer Jean Cocteau, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1935 | | The play Waiting for Lefty, by the US writer Clifford Odets is first performed, at the Civic Theater in New York City. It becomes one of the best-known examples of US proletarian drama. |
| 1935 | | The verse play Murder in the Cathedral, by the US-born English writer T S Eliot, is first performed, in Canterbury Cathedral, England. |
| 1937 | France | The play Electre/Electra, by the French writer Jean Giraudoux, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1941 | USA | The US writer Eugene O'Neill completes one of his best-known plays, Long Day's Journey into Night. It will not open until 1956. |
| 1941 | Germany, Switzerland | The play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage and her Children, by the German writer Bertolt Brecht, is first performed, in Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 1943 | Germany, Switzerland | Two plays by the German writer Bertolt Brecht are first performed in Zürich, Switzerland: Der gute Mensche von Sezuan/The Good Woman of Sezuan and Leben des Galilei/The Life of Galileo. |
| 1944 | France | The play Huis Clos/In Camera (in the USA No Exit), by the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, is first performed, in Paris, France. It contains the famous line ‘hell is other people’. |
| 1945 | USA | The play The Glass Menagerie, by the US writer Tennessee Williams, is first performed, at the Plymouth Theater in New York City. |
| 1946 | USA | The play The Iceman Cometh, by the US writer Eugene O'Neill is first performed, at the Martin Beck Theater in New York City. |
| 1947 | France | The play L'Invitation au château/Ring Around the Moon , by the French writer Jean Anouilh, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| December 1947 | USA | The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by the US writer Tennessee Williams, is first performed, in New York City, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando. |
| 1948 | England | The romantic comedy The Lady's Not for Burning, by the English writer Christopher Fry, is first performed, in the Arts Theatre in London, England. |
| 1948 | France | The play Les Bonnes/The Maids, by the French writer Jean Genet, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1949 | USA | The play Death of a Salesman, by the US writer Arthur Miller, is first performed, in New York City. |
| 1952 | UK | The play The Mousetrap, by the English writer Agatha Christie, is first performed, in London, England. |
| 1953 | France | The play En attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot, by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1953 | USA | The play The Crucible, by the US dramatist Arthur Miller, is first performed, at the Martin Beck Theater in New York City. |
| 1955 | USA | The play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by the US dramatist Tennessee Williams, is first performed, at the Morosco Theater in New York City. |
| 1955 | USA | The play A View from the Bridge by the US dramatist Arthur Miller, is first performed, at the Coronet Theater in New York City. |
| 1956 | USA | The play A Long Day's Journey into Night, by the US dramatist Eugene O'Neill, is first performed, at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York City. |
| 1957 | England | The play The Entertainer, by the English dramatist John Osborne, is first performed. |
| 1957 | Ireland | The play The Hostage, by the Irish writer Brendan Behan, is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland. |
| 1958 | Ireland, France | The play Krapp's Last Tape, by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, is first performed, at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. |
| 1958 | UK | The play The Birthday Party, by the English dramatist Harold Pinter, is first performed, in Cambridge, England. |
| 1958 | Switzerland | The play Biedermann und die Brandstifter/The Fireraisers, by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch, is first performed, in Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 1959 | UK | The play Sergeant Musgrave's Dance, by the English dramatist John Arden, is first performed, at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. |
| 1959 | UK | The play A Taste of Honey, by the English dramatist Shelagh Delaney, is first performed, at the Wyndham Theatre in London, England. |
| 1960 | UK | The play The Caretaker, by the English dramatist Harold Pinter, is first performed, at the Arts Theatre in London, England. |
| 1960 | UK | The play A Man for All Seasons, by the English dramatist Robert Bolt, based on the life of Sir Thomas More, is first performed, at the Globe Theatre in London, England. |
| 1960 | France | The absurdist play Le Rhinocéros/The Rhinoceros, by the Romanian-born French dramatist Eugène Ionesco, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1961 | England | The play Luther, by the English dramatist John Osborne, is first performed at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, England. |
| 1961 | Switzerland | The play Andorra, by the Swiss writer Max Frisch, is first performed in Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 1962 | Switzerland | The play Die Physiker/The Physicists, by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is first performed in Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 27 October 1962 | USA | The play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by the US dramatist Edward Albee, is first performed, at the Billy Rose Theater in New York City. |
| 1964 | Germany | The play Marat/Sade, by the German dramatist Peter Weiss, is first performed in Berlin, Germany. The full title is Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean-Paul Marats, dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung der Herrn de Sade/The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. |
| 1966 | UK | The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by the Czech-born British dramatist Tom Stoppard, is first performed, at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland. It opens the following year at the Old Vic Theatre in London, England. |
| 1966 | Germany, Austria | The play Publikumsbeschimpfung/Offending the Audience, by the Austrian writer Peter Handke, is first performed in Frankfurt, Germany. |
| 1967 | Germany | The play Soldaten/Soldiers, by the German dramatist Rolf Hochhuth, is first performed in Berlin, Germany. |
| 1969 | South Africa | The play Boesman and Lena, by the South African dramatist Athol Fugard, is first performed in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. |
| 1970 | Italy | The play Morte accidentale di un anarchico/Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by the Italian actor and dramatist Dario Fo, is first performed in Milan, Italy. |
| 1972 | South Africa | The play Sizwe Banzi is Dead, by the South African writer Athol Fugard, is first performed, in South Africa. |
| 1972 | UK | The play Jumpers, by the English writer Tom Stoppard, is first performed, at the Old Vic Theatre in London, England. |
| 1973 | UK | The play Absurd Person Singular, by the English writer Alan Ayckbourn, is first performed, at the Criterion Theatre in London, England. |
| 1974 | Italy | The play Non si page! Non si page!/Can't Pay, Won't Pay, by the Italian writer and actor Dario Fo, is first performed, in Italy. Fo soon gains an international reputation. |
| 1974 | UK | The play Travesties, by the English writer Tom Stoppard, is first performed, at the Aldwych Theatre in London, England. |
| 1976 | Austria | The play Audience, by the Czech writer and politician Václav Havel, is first performed, in Vienna, Austria. |
| 1976 | USA | The play California Suite, by the US writer Neil Simon, is first performed, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in New York City. |
| 1978 | USA | The play Buried Child, by the US writer Sam Shepard, is first performed, at the Theater de Lys in New York City. |
| 1978 | UK | The play Plenty, by the English writer David Hare, is first performed, at the National Theatre in London, England. |
| 1979 | UK | The play Amadeus, by the English writer Peter Shaffer, is first performed, at the Olivier Theatre in London, England, directed by Peter Hall. It is based on the life of the composer Mozart. |
| 1980 | England | The play The Romans in Britain by the English writer Howard Brenton is first performed, at the National Theatre in London, England. It causes controversy because of scenes involving nudity and sexual violence. It is threatened with prosecution for obscenity, but the case is later dropped. |
| 1989 | UK | The play Shadowlands, by the English writer William Nicholson, is first performed, at the Queen's Theatre in London, England. It is based on the life of the English writer C S Lewis. |
| 1991 | USA | The play Lost in Yonkers, by the US dramatist Neil Simon, is first performed in New York City. It wins him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. |
| 1992 | USA | The play Oleanna, by the US writer David Mamet, is first performed in New York City. |
