John Ford's Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633). This passionate seventeenth-century play is the masterpiece of Caroline theater. The dominant theme is as shocking today as it was then: the incestuous love of the siblings Gionvanni and Arabella. Ford delights in exploring the ethical paradoxes created by this love.

August Strindberg's naturalist drama Miss Julie (1888) is now a staple of mainstream theater, but in its own day it was banned by the Danish censor. In the play, Strindberg explores the theme of cross-class love.

Stoppard's Arcadia (1993) is an entertaining play about the Romantic poet Byron's disappearance from Britain in 1809 and other unanswered riddles of Romanticism. It spans two different time periods. Arcadia was heralded as Stoppard's most intellectually ambitious play yet.

Yasmina Reza' s A r? (1997) is a wildly successful French play, translated into English, about three friends' different reactions to...