Many critics and scholars group Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Yerma as a trilogy, as they all deal with rural Spain and were composed from 1932 to 1936. Their author, Federico Garcia Lorca, had actually intended to write a third play to make a trilogy, and did not himself see The House of Bernarda Alba in the trilogy. Lorca was killed by Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, for his activity on behalf of the Republican forces, which often was apparent in his writings.

John Guare emerged in the 1960s with a wave of other playwrights, but distinguished himself through wry humor and interesting narrative form, both of which he applied to conventionally dramatic stories. The House of Blue Leaves (1966) is a black comedy about nuns, the Vietnam War, and mental institutions that features many characters coming and going. Six Degrees of Separation (1990) tells the story of a con man's deception of socialites from the socialites' perspective at a dinner party.

A Streetcar Named Desire won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for its playwright, Tennessee Williams. Largely considered one of the premier dramas of the twentieth century, the play's depiction of mental health problems, sexual desire, and violence was considered groundbreaking in its own time. The play would be made into an award-winning movie in 1951 and firmly established Tennessee Williams as one of the largest figures of the theater world.

Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1949, David Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1984, Eugene O'Neil won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1922, 1928, and 1957, and Sarah Ruhl won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2010. 

Among the ancient Greek tragedians, the work of Sophocles has been held in high esteem since he worked in the fifth century BCE. His most notable work is Oedipus Rex, which tells the story of the titular ancient king of Thebes who, unbeknownst to him, marries his mother and kills his father. The play, like most Greek drama, hinges on dramatic irony, with the audience knowing Oedipus' secrets throughout.

Sophocles was a playwright from Greece. He wrote three plays about Oedipus. Oedipus Rex, also known as Oedipus the King, was the most famous of those plays. Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous Greek tragedies ever written, especially since Sigmund Freud used it as the basis for some of his seminal works of psychology.

Titus Andronicus was William Shakespeare's first tragedy, performed originally in the early 1590s, when Shakespeare only had success as a comedy writer. Titus Andronicus is by far the goriest and most violent of Shakespeare's plays, in which he emulated contemporary "revenge plays." The play finishes with the titular Roman general feeding a pie to a Gothic queen that contains the meat of her two dead sons.

Among Shakespeare's comedies, Much Ado About Nothing is relatively straightforward narratively, with the action focusing on two couples, the young lovers Claudio and Hero and the combative couple Beatrice and Benedick. The straightforward narrative, however, allows Shakespeare to play up the witty dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick. The play is famous for some of Shakespeare's cleverest writing and funniest scenes.

Christopher Marlowe was an early contemporary of William Shakespeare, and was arguably more popular in his time than Shakespeare. Marlowe's death in 1593 under mysterious circumstances was seen to have cut short a promising literary career. His work continues on, as in his telling of the Faust myth, Doctor Faustus, from 1589.