[sun surfer]

I'll nominate two:


The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky

Spoiler:

"The Lower Depths . . . is a remarkable play for a relatively inexperienced dramatist. It entertained but confronted, challenged and divided the auditorium. The Moscow Arts Theatre and arguably Russian theater were never to be the same again." - Cynthia Marsh


From goodreads:

This compelling 1902 play, considered Gorky's masterpiece, centers on a group of wretched souls who congregate to play cards, tell stories, and debate whether it is better to live without illusions or to maintain a romanticized worldview. A powerful, influential drama, hailed for its realistic and memorable characterisations.

Śakuntalā by Kālidāsa

Spoiler:

Also known as The Recognition of Śakuntalā


"Poetical fluency is not rare; intellectual grasp is not very uncommon: but the combination has not been found perhaps more than a dozen times since the world began. Because he possessed this harmonious combination, Kālidāsa ranks not with Anacreon and Horace and Shelley, but with Sophocles, Vergil, Milton." - Arthur W. Ryder


From goodreads:

Kālidāsa's play about the love of King Dusyanta for Śakuntalā, a monastic girl, is the supreme work of Sanskrit drama by its greatest poet and playwright (c.4th century CE). Overwhelmingly erotic in tone and in performance, The Recognition of Śakuntalā aimed to produce an experience of aesthetic rapture in the audience, comparable to certain types of mystical experience.

I'm interested in all the nominations so far too; it's hard to decide what to do with the rest of my noms.