These eleven one-act plays present the major figures of the modern theatre in an art form that demands from the dramatist the best in vigor, intensity, and precision. They conduct the reader on a historical tour of the modern play, from the naturalism of Strindberg to the intellectual drama of Pirandello; from the lyrical drama of Saroyan to the social drama of Arthur Miller and the psychological drama of Tennessee Williams; from the verse of Yeats and MacLeish to Ionesco's theatre of the absurd.