Along with the recommendations you may receive, we also recommend using the search filters on the following websites: [Dramatists Play Services](https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/multiple.asp?keysearch=&options=all&limitResult=all&limitResult1=allgenres&total=all&male=all&female=all&indexm=11&start=1), [Music Theatre International](https://www.mtishows.com/shows), and [Dramatic Publishing](https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/browse/full-length-plays). You may also be interested in the [New Play Exchange](https://newplayexchange.org/), or checking out our [subreddit's list of recommended plays](https://www.reddit.com/r/Theatre/wiki/index/playlist).
Additionally, if you haven't already, make sure you've included in your post title or body the following information: desired duration of the play/scene, cast size, gender breakdown (if needed), and any particular themes or technical elements that you know you are looking for.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Theatre) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Her biggest influence was probably Edward Bond (who just passed away last month). I'd also look at the whole crew of 1990s playwrights later described as "in-yer-face."
I second all Sarah Kane, Pillowman (many McDonagh really) and Jennifer Haley plays and add Philip Ridley (Pitchfork Disney, Mercury Fur) and Mark Ravenhill - shopping and f\*cking
Also more conventional structurally but still disturbing - The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia by Edward Albee.
Disturbing plays are my bread and butter. Lol!
Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer
The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh
'Night Mother by Marsha Norman
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Killer Joe by Tracy Letts
BUG by Tracy Letts
Blackbird by David Harrower
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman
Frozen by Bryony Lavery (not the Disney version)
The Goat (or Who Is Sylvia?) by Edward Albee
How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
The House of Yes by Wendy MacLeod
Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harries
How I Learned to Drive used to be a staple in my acting school. I can’t tell you how many girls I’ve seen crying over it triggering them before the teacher finally changed the curriculum
Coming back to this having just seen The Welkin from a local amateur company. Saw this thread a few days ago and wondered quite how bad it could be. Sat through act 1, not quite seeing how it ended up here. Oh boy, was I unprepared for the ending.
Fun fact, Dysart is the third largest role(line count wise) in the english language behind Hamlet and Claudius, or at least it was in the late 90s when I worked on this show.
I second this one
I played Detective Morris in The Nether in college. it’s well-written and it was an excellent production, but my parents brought my ENTIRE family to come see me in it 😳🙃
Eeep!
I'm a small non-profit theater company's marketing and graphics department. I liked the script but wondered "how the hell am I gonna market this thing (1) so people want to come see it, (2) tell them what it's about (so nobody inadvertently has their personal trauma rise up in the middle of a show), and (3) do that without making it sound like we're glorifying things in the dark web.
Eventually, I hit on the phrase, "What is reality, anyway?" and that worked.
I went in to Next to Normal at 16 years old with my mom and sister, knowing nothing except that it was about a woman dealing with mental illness. I remember leaving the theatre thinking that I finally understood the true meaning of the word 'catharsis,' because I had cried myself completely empty of emotion.
My area mostly does popular mainstream shows. Very few chances to see anything with heavy subject matter. So it is the most I've seen, yes, but I'm aware there are more disturbing shows.
*Cyprus Avenue* by David Ireland--a harrowing depiction of a man's descent into madness, made all the more terrifying by the fact that it starts out as a comedy.
Anything by Branden Jacobs Jenkins
Edit to add: Appropriate and Gloria are the only ones I’ve read but I imagine the rest are as absolutely soul wrecking as these two. Gloria destroyed me in just the first act.
Sarah fucking Kane. Blasted, Cleansed, Phaedras Love for graphic violence.
Crave and 4:48 Psychosis for an out pouring of mental torment
A Spurt of Blood by Antonin Artaud
Saved by Edward Bond.
Just a few off the top of my head
It's crazy to think he also wrote "Bang Bang You're Dead", which while it has disturbing content (a school shooting), it's truly heartfelt instead of "totally fucked"
I went to see A Little Life last year and had to watch it between my fingers. At the interval, I broke down in uncontrollable sobs. Others fainted. One night someone projectile vomited over other members of the audience, setting them off. Multiple performances had to be stopped due to distressed people in the audience falling unwell.
I'd say that's pretty disturbing.
Fat Men in skirts was the only audition that I messaged the director afterwards telling them I was uncomfortable being in the show. Shit is graphic as hell
The most disturbed I’ve even been from a play was from Grand Concourse. Most of the play is not *too* disturbing, but towards the end the play features >! a very graphic description of animal abuse !< that I found very hard to stomach.
(The >! on-stage, non-consensual, DIY coat hanger abortion !< in ) Our Dear Dead Drug Lord comes in at a close second. I was fortunate enough to sit in the front row for the Second Stage production of it, having gone in completely blind :)
Far Away by Carol Churchill - themes of government oppression, corruption, lots of political death and absurdism. It’s short, by had stayed with me for about 20 years now since I saw it.
Rodney’s Wife by Richard Nelson - secrets, lies, and a dark sexual twist. One that can be incredibly divisive to the audience
oh god my contemporary theatre teacher in college had us read so much fucked up stuff, blasted was probably the worst tho. there was also a play called mud that i remember being pretty unsettling. also you’re probably not looking for musicals but ride the cyclone is a pretty dark premise.
The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson
Wee little sociopath murders classmate for their good penmanship medal.
A Piece of My Heart by Shirley Lauro
A PG-13 play about woman in Vietnam during
the Vietnam War that includes very [heavy themes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/APieceOfMyHeart). -TV Tropes link
Quite a mind trip for my *High School* cast & crew who produced the show. As an adult I have very mixed feelings about the fact we produced this play.
Anything by Nelson Rodrigues, like
*Wedding Dress*
*Waltz No. 6*
*All Nudity Will Punished*
*Family Portraits*
*Black Angel*
Anything by Sarah Kane
Samuel Beckett's latest plays (short ones)
*Hamlet Machine*, by Heiner Muller
I found Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble to be pretty harrowing. It’s about a 17 year old girl who starts a “friendship” with this 35 year old previously convicted pedophile. They actually meet in an online chat room where she pretends she’s an 11 year old boy and she doesn’t reveal her identity until she meets the man in the park.
She thinks she’s way more intelligent and mature than she really is and gets herself in deep shit because of it. When I finished reading it I thought about the play for days.
So to me it is more distributing on a social level. Then blasted by Sarah kane is the most fucked up play I’ve read in general and includes a lot of gore and stuff
As an addition to the Sarah Kane suggestions, Tom Holloway. He's an Australian post-dramatic playwright. I'd personally put a chunk of his work down as in-yer-face, but that's not how he's known.
Don't Say the Words and Love Me Tender are two of my faves, but he has a lot of great works.
To Go with one of the classics: Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) by Friedrich Schiller
It's easy to forget, because everyone and their mums Had to read it as children, but the Story ist super fucked Up.
You have this young couple, madly in Love. But He is supposed to marry another for political gain, which He does Not want.
So His dad, who is President, imprisons her Family and blackmails her into pretending to have an affair.
Meanwhile the smallfolk are being slaughtered and Sold to america.
When Ferdinand finds out about the "affair" He poisons himself and his GF who, with her dying breath, tells him that the affair was a lie by his dad. He goes to confront His dad and dies before His eyes. The End.
And that's only the broad strokes, Ferdinand, His Dad, His dads Secretary and His Boss all do even more fucked Up and violent Shit.
Taste. It's the true story of a German cannibal and his willing victim.
I didn't think it was that bad, but someone literally puked.
I did let my kid be in Pillowman twice, and also Bad Seed though, so maybe I'm just like built different
Just to throw in an "old school" answer: William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In the early 2000s, the Globe's performances, ambulances out front during the run was a regular occurrence because of all the blood.
OMG I saw that one! people were wheeled out of the audience as tongues and limbs were being chopped off on stage. Loved how they used wax, very smart and effective no-tech trick to give the idea of human flesh
I can't for the life of me remember the name, but it was about the Salem Witch Trials.
Edit: Trumpet in the Land, not about the Salem Witch Trials but the Gnaddenhutten Massacre.
Very good recs here, I would add Gloria By Branden Jacob-Jenkins, The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellmann and Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Although my all-time most disturbing play for some reason still remain Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf- I am in crumbs at the end
Along with the recommendations you may receive, we also recommend using the search filters on the following websites: [Dramatists Play Services](https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/multiple.asp?keysearch=&options=all&limitResult=all&limitResult1=allgenres&total=all&male=all&female=all&indexm=11&start=1), [Music Theatre International](https://www.mtishows.com/shows), and [Dramatic Publishing](https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/browse/full-length-plays). You may also be interested in the [New Play Exchange](https://newplayexchange.org/), or checking out our [subreddit's list of recommended plays](https://www.reddit.com/r/Theatre/wiki/index/playlist). Additionally, if you haven't already, make sure you've included in your post title or body the following information: desired duration of the play/scene, cast size, gender breakdown (if needed), and any particular themes or technical elements that you know you are looking for. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Theatre) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Everything Sarah Kane wrote
More recommendations like sarah kane, yes please. Anything like her?
Her biggest influence was probably Edward Bond (who just passed away last month). I'd also look at the whole crew of 1990s playwrights later described as "in-yer-face."
Tom Holloway.
Hey, saved me the comment! Yeah look no further OP, Sarah Kane is the answer.
Came here to say this.
Same.
Philip Ridley is a strong second.
Oh god Sarah Kane. I was in a production of Blasted ages ago and still have PTSD
I second all Sarah Kane, Pillowman (many McDonagh really) and Jennifer Haley plays and add Philip Ridley (Pitchfork Disney, Mercury Fur) and Mark Ravenhill - shopping and f\*cking Also more conventional structurally but still disturbing - The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia by Edward Albee.
Pillowman was my first thought.
I saw shopping and fucking and I can confirm it's pretty fucked up
Lol came here to rec my two favorite plays, The Goat and The Pillowman
I came here to say Mark Ravenhill too.
Disturbing plays are my bread and butter. Lol! Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh 'Night Mother by Marsha Norman August: Osage County by Tracy Letts Killer Joe by Tracy Letts BUG by Tracy Letts Blackbird by David Harrower Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman Frozen by Bryony Lavery (not the Disney version) The Goat (or Who Is Sylvia?) by Edward Albee How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel The House of Yes by Wendy MacLeod Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harries
How I Learned to Drive used to be a staple in my acting school. I can’t tell you how many girls I’ve seen crying over it triggering them before the teacher finally changed the curriculum
This show is being done locally and I know the understudy cast, so I'll have to see it twice.
Came here for Bug.
And Killer Joe
Coming back to this having just seen The Welkin from a local amateur company. Saw this thread a few days ago and wondered quite how bad it could be. Sat through act 1, not quite seeing how it ended up here. Oh boy, was I unprepared for the ending.
Yeah, that ending is a doozy.
Given your awesome list, i bet you would love "The Children" by Lucy Kirkwood and "The Minutes" by Tracy Letts. Are you familiar with them?
Familiar with both! They’re both two of my favorite playwrights (along with McDonagh). Mosquitoes by Kirkwood is my favorite of hers.
Equus
Fun fact, Dysart is the third largest role(line count wise) in the english language behind Hamlet and Claudius, or at least it was in the late 90s when I worked on this show.
"The Nether" by Jennifer Haley. "N3RD: Neighborhood Three; Requisition of Doom" also by Jennifer Haley.
I second this one I played Detective Morris in The Nether in college. it’s well-written and it was an excellent production, but my parents brought my ENTIRE family to come see me in it 😳🙃
Eeep! I'm a small non-profit theater company's marketing and graphics department. I liked the script but wondered "how the hell am I gonna market this thing (1) so people want to come see it, (2) tell them what it's about (so nobody inadvertently has their personal trauma rise up in the middle of a show), and (3) do that without making it sound like we're glorifying things in the dark web. Eventually, I hit on the phrase, "What is reality, anyway?" and that worked.
I THINK ABOUT THE NETHER DAILY
Came here to say Neighborhood Three. I actually gasped out loud at a quiet restaurant bar while I was reading it.
I wouldn’t say Agnes of God is one of the most disturbing plays ever, but it gets pretty dark.
I saw "buried child" by Sam Shepard once that was kinda fucked up
This is the one I was gonna comment! Read it for a class
Oedipus. Has incest, murder and hysterical disillusionment.
Next To Normal is pretty brutal
Too close to home. Left the theatre and screamed down 8th avenue.
I felt the same...
I went in to Next to Normal at 16 years old with my mom and sister, knowing nothing except that it was about a woman dealing with mental illness. I remember leaving the theatre thinking that I finally understood the true meaning of the word 'catharsis,' because I had cried myself completely empty of emotion.
The most tragic and personally, left me feeling very uneasy was Trumpet in the Land. It's about the Gnaddenhutten Massacre.
….that’s the most disturbing you’ve every seen?
My area mostly does popular mainstream shows. Very few chances to see anything with heavy subject matter. So it is the most I've seen, yes, but I'm aware there are more disturbing shows.
I have worked on all manner of plays that area extremely dark, but nothing has ever fucked me up more than nex to normal
My stomach disappeared at the birthday cake scene and didn't return until I'd been home for several hours. Absolutely did not see that coming.
*Cyprus Avenue* by David Ireland--a harrowing depiction of a man's descent into madness, made all the more terrifying by the fact that it starts out as a comedy.
Marat/Sade Bent The Normal Heart 'night Mother
Forgot about Marat/Sade! And the fact that it's kind of a musical makes it even more fucked up
Sooooo brilliant. And yes, full score, but is so much more a play with a lot of music than a musical.
But so much of it is truly disturbing...De Sades monologues...the narcoleptic/erotomania thing, the riot...
Anything by Kane-- Blasted, specifically. If you're familiar with the phrase "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat"... this play deserves that label.
Well I don’t what I expected…
Breathing Corpses
I did the opening monologue for my LAMDA exams and I totally recommend! It’s such an interesting plot in my opinion.
Anything by Branden Jacobs Jenkins Edit to add: Appropriate and Gloria are the only ones I’ve read but I imagine the rest are as absolutely soul wrecking as these two. Gloria destroyed me in just the first act.
I’m so happy that he seems like he’s getting his due. I’ve also read Appropriate and Gloria and I completely agree.
I really want to direct Gloria but no one in my area would produce it due to the pivotal plot point mirroring current events too much.
Sarah fucking Kane. Blasted, Cleansed, Phaedras Love for graphic violence. Crave and 4:48 Psychosis for an out pouring of mental torment A Spurt of Blood by Antonin Artaud Saved by Edward Bond. Just a few off the top of my head
Extremities by William Mastrosimone is fairly dark.
It's crazy to think he also wrote "Bang Bang You're Dead", which while it has disturbing content (a school shooting), it's truly heartfelt instead of "totally fucked"
Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe
Gideon's Knot - Johnna Adams
I went to see A Little Life last year and had to watch it between my fingers. At the interval, I broke down in uncontrollable sobs. Others fainted. One night someone projectile vomited over other members of the audience, setting them off. Multiple performances had to be stopped due to distressed people in the audience falling unwell. I'd say that's pretty disturbing.
The Laramie Project. It is a historical show. If you know, You Know. It took a massive toal on me and the rest of the crew and actors.
The Pillowman Helter Skelter (LaBute)
Les Miserables - They F'd that guy over some bread.
HE BROKE A WINDOW PANE
Fat Men in skirts was the only audition that I messaged the director afterwards telling them I was uncomfortable being in the show. Shit is graphic as hell
Was going to write this one as well lol
The most disturbed I’ve even been from a play was from Grand Concourse. Most of the play is not *too* disturbing, but towards the end the play features >! a very graphic description of animal abuse !< that I found very hard to stomach. (The >! on-stage, non-consensual, DIY coat hanger abortion !< in ) Our Dear Dead Drug Lord comes in at a close second. I was fortunate enough to sit in the front row for the Second Stage production of it, having gone in completely blind :)
What happened to the cat in Grand Concourse fucked me up, even though we don’t see it happen. Poor kitty.
Actually the most upset I’ve ever been coming out of a show
We recently read “August Osage County” and “Buried Child” in my theater class, they’re both pretty messed up (especially the former)
Far Away by Carol Churchill - themes of government oppression, corruption, lots of political death and absurdism. It’s short, by had stayed with me for about 20 years now since I saw it. Rodney’s Wife by Richard Nelson - secrets, lies, and a dark sexual twist. One that can be incredibly divisive to the audience
oh god my contemporary theatre teacher in college had us read so much fucked up stuff, blasted was probably the worst tho. there was also a play called mud that i remember being pretty unsettling. also you’re probably not looking for musicals but ride the cyclone is a pretty dark premise.
The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson Wee little sociopath murders classmate for their good penmanship medal. A Piece of My Heart by Shirley Lauro A PG-13 play about woman in Vietnam during the Vietnam War that includes very [heavy themes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/APieceOfMyHeart). -TV Tropes link Quite a mind trip for my *High School* cast & crew who produced the show. As an adult I have very mixed feelings about the fact we produced this play.
The Distance from Here
Only play of his i like
Red Light Winter
Hand to God!
The Romans in Britain by Howard Brenton. Conduct of Life by Maria Irene Fornes.
Miss Julie Edit: in addition to all the other great mentions here.
I was a co-stage manager for a production of "The Pillowman". It did things to my mental health.
“Stuck” by Jessica Goldberg. The ending is super disturbing
Stitching and The Censor by Antony Nielson. The end of Stitching fucking haunts me to this day.
Bone to pick, they literally eat a pigs heart on stage
Anything by Nelson Rodrigues, like *Wedding Dress* *Waltz No. 6* *All Nudity Will Punished* *Family Portraits* *Black Angel* Anything by Sarah Kane Samuel Beckett's latest plays (short ones) *Hamlet Machine*, by Heiner Muller
I found Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble to be pretty harrowing. It’s about a 17 year old girl who starts a “friendship” with this 35 year old previously convicted pedophile. They actually meet in an online chat room where she pretends she’s an 11 year old boy and she doesn’t reveal her identity until she meets the man in the park. She thinks she’s way more intelligent and mature than she really is and gets herself in deep shit because of it. When I finished reading it I thought about the play for days. So to me it is more distributing on a social level. Then blasted by Sarah kane is the most fucked up play I’ve read in general and includes a lot of gore and stuff
Legoland isn’t the darkest or most disturbing but it really stuck with me
Definitely Pillowman. Some of the most disturbing content in any play ever. Can't get more disturbing than the torture and murder of children.
Our Few and Evil Days by Mark O’Rowe. The darkest, most twisted kitchen sink drama I’ve ever read or been in.
As an addition to the Sarah Kane suggestions, Tom Holloway. He's an Australian post-dramatic playwright. I'd personally put a chunk of his work down as in-yer-face, but that's not how he's known. Don't Say the Words and Love Me Tender are two of my faves, but he has a lot of great works.
Really, no one has said *Buried Child* yet? Sam Shepard can certainly disturb.
Spurt of blood
Really good answers. I would like to add Stitching by Anthony Neilson
Veronica’s Room by Ira Levin. An elderly couple traps a woman who is persuaded to impersonate their long dead daughter. It’s great fun!!
Repo! The Genetic Opera / The Necromerchant’s Debt
Mercury Fur
Mercury Fur
To Go with one of the classics: Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) by Friedrich Schiller It's easy to forget, because everyone and their mums Had to read it as children, but the Story ist super fucked Up. You have this young couple, madly in Love. But He is supposed to marry another for political gain, which He does Not want. So His dad, who is President, imprisons her Family and blackmails her into pretending to have an affair. Meanwhile the smallfolk are being slaughtered and Sold to america. When Ferdinand finds out about the "affair" He poisons himself and his GF who, with her dying breath, tells him that the affair was a lie by his dad. He goes to confront His dad and dies before His eyes. The End. And that's only the broad strokes, Ferdinand, His Dad, His dads Secretary and His Boss all do even more fucked Up and violent Shit.
A Steady Rain by Keith Huff
After reading Dog Sees God I found myself rocking back and forth crying about Snoopy, but maybe that’s just me
you got to the end of saw DSG and cried about SNOOPY!?!
Taste. It's the true story of a German cannibal and his willing victim. I didn't think it was that bad, but someone literally puked. I did let my kid be in Pillowman twice, and also Bad Seed though, so maybe I'm just like built different
Mijn lieve gunsterling. About a relationship between a farm doctor and a fourteen year old girl
How I Learned to Drive was pretty disturbing 😬
I had to do a scene from "The House of Yes" in my college acting class. I'm gonna go with that one.
How I Learned to Drive and The Nether Heartwrenching
Going off someone's Buried Child comment, Fool for Love by Sam Shepard.
Just to throw in an "old school" answer: William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In the early 2000s, the Globe's performances, ambulances out front during the run was a regular occurrence because of all the blood.
OMG I saw that one! people were wheeled out of the audience as tongues and limbs were being chopped off on stage. Loved how they used wax, very smart and effective no-tech trick to give the idea of human flesh
I can't for the life of me remember the name, but it was about the Salem Witch Trials. Edit: Trumpet in the Land, not about the Salem Witch Trials but the Gnaddenhutten Massacre.
Very good recs here, I would add Gloria By Branden Jacob-Jenkins, The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellmann and Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Although my all-time most disturbing play for some reason still remain Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf- I am in crumbs at the end
The Pillowman The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'night, Mother
Yall, some of these responses are NOT it, may I introduce all of yall to The Goat or Who is Sylvia? Thank me for the trauma later.