This work contains three landmark plays from the French theatre, embodying the transition from the old to the modern in dramatic experimentation. Precursors of surrealism, they are innovative, outrageous and highly enjoyable. They are: Maurice Maeterlinck's, The Blind (1890); Alfred Jarry's, Ubu the King (1896); and Apollinaire's, The Mammaries of Tiresias (1917). Who's there? Who are you? Have pity on us, we've been waiting so long! The Blind's predicament is desperate, but Maeterlinck makes poetry out of their tragedy. If the mysterious Blind symbolize mankind, who is the priest they wait for? Here I am! Gadzooks, by the wick of my candle, I'm surely fat enough. Jarry's Ubu, murdering monster-king, popping his unwanted subjects into his deadly pockets, would be horrific if he weren't so funny. I want to make war and not make babies. No Monsieur husband, you won't order me around any more. Therese wins independence by turning into a man in Apollinaire's witty, outrageous farce, which first introduced the word surrealism to the world. These three French plays, written between 1890 and 1917, surprised and shocked their first audiences. They still seem new, different - and sometimes shocking - today.

Maya Slater is Senior Lecturer in French at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. She is the editor of the World's Classics La Fontaine, Selected Fables.