The Play’s the Thing Quiz Quiz Questions

1. Which movie is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion?

A West Side Story B My Fair Lady C Kiss Me Kate D The Sound of Music

2. Which playwright was the chief exponent of Old Comedy in ancient Greece?

A Aristophanes B Sophocles C Aeschylus D Diogenes

3. Which playwright is best known for his play Oedipus the King?

A Sophocles B Plato C Euripides D Aristophanes

4. Who wrote the play Man and Superman?

A George Bernard Shaw B Dylan Thomas C Jerry Siegel D Henrik Ibsen

5. Which play by Eugene O’Neill is a trilogy based on Aeschylus’s Oresteia?

A The Iceman Cometh B Long Day’s Journey Into Night C Strange Interlude D Mourning Becomes Electra

6. What term refers to a passage in a play in which a character expresses their thoughts or feelings aloud while alone on the stage (or with other actors keeping silent)?

A onomatopoeia B soliloquy C stream of consciousness D oration

7. In which play by Shakespeare would you find the comic character Falstaff?

A Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 B Henry VI, parts 1, 2, and 3 C Richard III D Hamlet

8. Whose play Look Back in Anger ushered in a new movement in British drama?

A W. Somerset Maugham’s B Eugene O’Neill’s C John Osborne’s D John Arden’s

9. What is the name of the penniless Venetian who asks his friend for a loan in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice?

A Shylock B Bassanio C Antonio D Malvolio

10. What was the first play Shakespeare wrote on Roman themes?

A Antony and Cleopatra B The Winter’s Tale C Coriolanus D Julius Caesar

11. Which of these plays was not written by Christopher Marlowe?

A The Tragicall History of D. Faustus B The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta C Coriolanus D Tamburlaine the Great

12. Which of these plays did George Bernard Shaw write?

A Man and Woman B Antony and Cleopatra C Our Town D Saint Joan

13. Which theatre company in England had William Shakespeare as its leading dramatist?

A Prince Henry’s Men B Lord Chamberlain’s Men C Royal Shakespeare Company D Children of the Chapel

14. Which English actor born in 1789 was known for his portrayal of villains in Shakespearean plays?

A Mark Rylance B Edmund Kean C Edwin Booth D Laurence Olivier

15. Which was the first Greek tragedy to be presented on the English stage, in 1566?

A Medea B Antigone C Jocasta D Oedipus Rex