Three dramas about life and joy. Pre-Christian: Dylan Thomas, Under milk wood ; Christian: Thornton Wilder, Our town ; Post-Christian: Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot -- Three dramas about religion (relationship with God). Pre-Christian: Aeschylus, Prometheus bound ; Christian: Robert Bolt, A man for all seasons ; Post-Christian: Peter Shaffer, Equus -- Three dramas about suffering. Pre-Christian: Sophocles, Oedipus the King ; Christian: William Nicholson, Shadowlands ; Post-Christian: Archibald MacLeish, J.B. -- Three dramas about death. Pre-Christian: William Shakespeare, Hamlet ; Christian: John Henry Newman, The dream of Gerontius ; Post-Christian: Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited -- Three dramas about damnation. Pre-Christian: William Shakespeare, Macbeth ; Christian: C.S.Lewis, The great divorce ; Post-Christian: Jean-Paul Sartre, No exit -- Appendix: The three greatest dramas of all time -- Concluding unscientific postscript