Theater performances: The Drama, The Passion, The Stage!

#61 Week 13

Author

Sigrun Sørumgård
March 26, 2025

How well do you know these famous plays?

  1. Which Shakespearean play features the line “To be, or not to be”?

  2. Who wrote The Importance of Being Earnest?

  3. In Oedipus Rex, who does Oedipus unknowingly kill?

  4. Which playwright wrote Pygmalion, which inspired the musical My Fair Lady?

  5. Who wrote No Exit, a play featuring the famous line "Hell is other people"?

  6. Which Shakespeare play features the character Prospero?

  7. Who is the protagonist of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House?

  8. Which playwright is known for The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard?

  9. Which play features the characters George and Martha, a feuding married couple?

  10. Who wrote Waiting for Godot?

The Wonder Wall

  • Shakespeare’s plays will go down in history as some of the most masterful works ever written. Still, many don't know that he created many of the words himself. A mixture of portmanteaus and switching nouns to verbs or vice versa gave us many words we still use today. These include bubble, assassin, advertising, exposure, and hobnob.

  • Currently, the longest-running theatre production of all time is Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap. It ran continuously from 1952 and only took its first break in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • In early theatre, sailors used to be regularly hired to work in the theatres as riggers, stagehands and costumers. Their unique skills with knots, ropes and sewing made them highly sought after.

Yesterday´s Questions & Answers

  1. Who holds the world record for the men’s 100m?

    Usain Bolt. The men's world record is 9.58 seconds, set by the Jamaican in 2009.

  2. Which American sprinter is known as “The Fastest Woman of All Time”?

    Florence Griffith Joyner swept the women's 100m, 200m and 4x100 gold medals at the Olympic Summer Games Seoul 1988, and still holds the world records in both the 100 and 200 - records that have stood for some 30 years.

  3. Which track and field legend won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

    James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980).

  4. What is the standard length for the modern marathon, which was set by the International Amateur Athletic Federation?

    A modern marathon is exactly 42.195 km (26.219 mi), set in May 1921.

  5. Who holds the men’s pole vault world record with a “jump” on 6.27 m, set in February 2025?

    Armand Gustav Duplantis, a Swedish-American pole vaulter who competes for Sweden.

  6. Who was the first woman to run the marathon in under 2 hours and 30 minutes?

    Norwegian runner Grete Waitz won the women's division of the New York City Marathon in 1979 for the second year in a row, crossing the finish line in a time of 2:27:33. She thus became the first woman to run the distance in under 2:30

  7. Which country did the runner Haile Gebrselassie represent in his long-distance events?

    Ethiopia. Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian former long-distance track and road running athlete.

  8. Who holds the world record in high jump for men, with the hight 2.45m, set in 1993?

    Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) is the world record holder with a jump of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) set in 1993 – the longest-standing record in the history of the men's high jump.

  9. Which athlete won 9 Olympic gold medals in track and field and is known as "The King of Track and Field"?

    Carl Lewis

  10. Which female athlete held the world record for 400 meters for over 30 years?

    Marita Koch, a German former sprint track and field athlete. During her career she set 16 world records in outdoor sprints as well as 14 world records in indoor events. Her record of 47.60 in the 400 metres, set on 6 October 1985, still stands.