Subtitled ‘‘A Comedy and a Philosophy,’’ George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman is a comedy of ideas: its characters discuss ideas such as capitalism, social reform, male and female roles in courtship, and other existential topics in long speeches that resemble arias in an opera.
Although The Bear is one of Anton Chekhov’s lesser-known plays, this “Farce in One-Act,” as it is subtitled, is an excellent representative of its genre.
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest follows Jack, a country bachelor who goes by the name Ernest when he pops into the city; and his friend Algernon, who seeks a thrill by becoming Ernest in the country.
Molière’s Tartuffe reveals how a religious hypocrite — an imposter — almost succeeds in his plot to jail a naive friend and his family and thereby cheat them out of their home. The social comedy, which satirizes false piety, hypocrites, and certain aspects of the Catholic Church, was perennially banned.