Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)

A lot of threads on this chat board are, justifiably, about the effects of the current pandemic on the theatre. Meanwhile, I'm sure that there are several plays about an outbreak of disease and its consequences - be it a local outbreak, a pandemic, or anything in between. In fact, I've thought of ideas for potential plays about the current pandemic (i.e. a journalist trying to gather facts about the outbreak by conducting remote interviews from an apartment).

What are some classic plays that you can think of that involve outbreaks?

An AIDS outbreak would definitely count.

I realize that this doesn't quite fit the bill of what you're asking for, but the first play I thought of was "The Children" by Lucy Kirkwood. It's not about a disease outbreak, per se, but it's about a small town with a nuclear reactor meltdown. All of the "essential employees" working there are risking their lives by exposing themselves to radiation. The play follows 3 older people who were former employees, who have to decide if they want to sacrifice their remaining years of health by taking over the skeleton crew, and saving the younger employees from an early death. In a way it's sort of the inverse of what's happening now, where younger employees are putting their health at risk to protect the lives of the elderly.

Oedipus Rex.

Various tales in The Decameron have been on stage - but I don't know about the framing for the Black Death.

There is a stage version of The Night of the Living Dead - kind of a pandemic....

Would you consider Rhinoceros as fitting? A different kind of pandemic.

On THE CHILDREN: Well, the themes would be similar, yes.

Updated On: 5/18/20 at 11:24 PM

Bruce Norris' A PARALLELOGRAM takes place in the wake of a global pandemic.

jpbran said: "Angels in America is about AIDS, both directly and indirectly. The Normal Heart. Was there ever a stage version of And The Band Plays On?

(EDIT: perhaps AIDS falls into the epidemicvs. pandemic category)"

And now we've lost Larry Kramer. He was working on another play about another pandemic, only to breathe his last before he could express his final thoughts. RIP

One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace is set in plague-ravaged 17th Century London.

Synopsis: A wealthy couple is preparing to flee their home when a mysterious sailor and a young girl appear sneaking into their boarded-up house. Now, quarantined together for 28 days, the only thing these strangers fear more than the Plague is each other.