History DrivenToSuicide / Theatre

'''As a DeathTrope, expect spoilers, both marked and unmarked.'''

** Averted in Mozart's ''Magic Flute''. Pamina keeps the knife her mother gave her to kill Sarastro. She instead encounters Tamino, and believing he has rejected her (he's in the middle of a trial of silence so can't talk to her), Pamina wanders off in a mad stupor calling the knife her "bridegroom". The Three Spirits manage to save her in the nick of time.

* In ''Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812'', based off a section of ''War and Peace'', Natasha takes arsenic trying to kill herself after finding out that Anatole, who she planned to elope with, was already married and had never told her. After taking only a little, though, she gets scared, wakes up her cousin, and is saved by doctors.

* In ''Theatre/{{Heathers}}'' [[spoiler:Martha Dunnstock]] and [[spoiler:Heather McNamara]] are good examples of this, but [[spoiler:Martha's]] fails and [[spoiler:Heather's]] is interrupted.

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Jasper and Agnes decide to [[spoiler:stay in Deadland and ruin their one chance of getting to the Living World]] after their lost memories return and they realize that [[spoiler:their time in the Living World was actually worse than their time in Deadland. This gets subverted when Eurydice arrives and convinces Jasper not to give up]].

DrivenToSuicide in {{Theatre}}.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare:
** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'':
*** The famous "To be, or not to be" line is from a soliloquy of the title character after he found that his uncle Claudius had killed his father Hamlet Sr. and had married his mother Gertrude, and comparing the shock to that of someone contemplating suicide.
*** One interpretation is that Ophelia's death really is a suicide. It's left unclear whether she accidentally fell into the lake or whether it was intentional.
*** Third example from ''Hamlet'' is Horatio, who attempts to die with Hamlet by drinking the remainder of the poisoned wine that killed Gertrude. Hamlet has to wrestle the chalice away from him and talk him into living. It's not the most inspiring speech, but it works.
** In ''Theatre/KingLear'', after Gloucester is blinded, he asks someone to take him to a cliff so he can jump off. The disguised Edgar takes him up on it, but tricks him into thinking he's at a cliff when really he's on a flat plain. It can be hard to direct; after all, if not pulled off correctly, the scene can just [[IncrediblyLamePun fall flat on its face]].
** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'':
*** Romeo and Juliet both kill themselves at the end, Romeo because he wanted to join Juliet in death (but tragically, he didn't know that Juliet was only FakingTheDead because the information that Friar Lawrence had intended for him never arrived), and Juliet because she wanted to join Romeo in death.
*** Some productions make Tybalt's death more or less a suicide too- his slaying of Mercutio is sometimes played as unintentional, and Tybalt is shocked enough by what he's done that he lets Romeo kill him.
** Most of Shakespeare's {{Tragic Hero}}es and villains qualify for this trope. Macbeth was one of the exceptions, as his death was in battle against Macduff rather than by his own hand. [[LadyMacbeth His wife]], however...
%%* Four words: ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman''.

* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' had, like the Literature section, [[EvilCannotComprehendGood Inspector]] [[InspectorJavert Javert]] [[ItWasHisSled do this]].
* In ''Theatre/TheChildrensHour'' [[spoiler:Martha]] commits suicide due to various reasons, mostly stemming from [[spoiler:heavy {{gayngst}}]]. She considers her and her best friends lives ruined because of said rumor, a rumor that occured because [[spoiler:she ''did'' have feelings for Karen]]. Karen's fiance [[spoiler:leaving her due to doubting her fidelity]] only made everything worse. Combine this extra stress and guilt with the fact she's a lesbian in TheRoaringTwenties (possibly TheThirties) and the fact she has an unrequited love and...

* Mariane in Moliere's ''Theatre/{{Tartuffe}}'' declares that she'll kill herself - with a pair of sewing scissors, no less - since her father is making her marry the eponymous JerkAss. Her maid intervenes.
* [[spoiler:Christine and then Orin]] in ''Mourning Becomes Electra''.
* [[TheWoobie Moritz Stiefel]] in ''Theatre/SpringAwakening''. He's a decent, hard-working kid trying to deal with schoolwork and his parents making him feel like a total pariah at home when he doesn't get top marks, plus guilt and shame over his changing body and sexual urges. He seems to get a break when he finds out he passed the midterms. Whereupon they fail him anyway because the school can't pass everyone. He then appeals to his best friend's mother, who apparently doesn't give a poo about his angst and ignores his cry for help, and his parents - well... After that, a (female) childhood friend offers him comfort, but he's so conflicted, he refuses and she storms off, very hurt. And then the poor boy puts a pistol in his mouth. And most of the audience walk away with broken hearts.
* S.P. Miskowski's ''my new friends (are so much better than you)'' is based on the forementioned RealLife tragedy of Megan Meier, who hanged herself after being bullied by a friend's mother masquerading as a teenage boy named Josh Evans on Website/MySpace.
* In Marsha Norman's ''Theatre/NightMother'' a woman nonchalantly tells her mother she's planning to commit suicide that night, leading to a long dialogue in which Mama tries to talk her out of it. [[spoiler:Mama is unsuccessful.]]

--> '''Cyrano:''' [[BeautyEqualsGoodness All words are fair that lurk 'neath fair mustache! ]]
--> — Suppose he were a fool!. . .
--> '''Roxane:''' ''(stamping her foot):'' Then bury me!

--> '''Ragueneau''': — And then, off she went, with a musketeer! Deserted and ruined too, I would make an end of all, and so hanged myself. My last breath was drawn: — [[InterruptedSuicide then in comes Monsieur de Bergerac! He cuts me down, and begs his cousin to take me for her steward]].

* [[spoiler: Jason]] in Theatre/BareAPopOpera. He's feeling so much angst about being gay, he got [[spoiler: Ivy]] pregnant, his friends have left him and when he asks Peter to run away with him, Peter refuses and says he can't hide anymore. The audience is left drowning in their own tears.
* In the backstory of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', Roger's girlfriend April slit her wrists after testing HIV-positive.

* In Creator/DorothyLSayers' ''Theatre/TheEmperorConstantine'', Maximian. Or so one soldier recounts to another, who doesn't believe it -- Maximian had tried to assasinate Constantine, and Constantine only threw him in jail? Much more likely he was disposed of.
* In ''Theatre/TheTragedyOfMan'', [[spoiler:Adam]] is on the verge of jumping off a cliff in the last scene. He is stopped when [[spoiler:Eve tells him she is pregnant.]]

* In both the play and film version of ''Theatre/SixDegreesOfSeparation'', [[spoiler: Rick, after realizing how he'd screwed up in letting ConMan Paul spend all of his and his girlfriend Elizabeth's savings, jumps out of the window of their apartment. Also, at the end, it's implied Paul kills himself in prison at the end, though we don't know for sure]].
* ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'' sees Connor Murphy killing himself offscreen not 20 minutes in. [[spoiler: Evan himself also attempted to kill himself by jumping out of a tree before the events of the musical.]]
* In act two of ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' and real life, [[spoiler: Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria killed himself via gunshot. This is stylized in the show as a frenetic dance with Death and the angels, though some actors choose to have Death force the gun to Rudolf's temple.]]
* ''Theatre/Frozen2018'' sees Queen Elsa nearly DrivenToSuicide by her guilt.
* In Theatre/{{Heathers}} [[spoiler: Martha Dunnstock]] and [[spoiler: Heather McNamara]] are good examples of this, but [[spoiler: Martha’s]] fails and [[spoiler: Heather’s]] is interrupted.
* In ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' Lucy drinks poison after she was raped by the judge. [[spoiler:However, Ms. Lovett failed to mention it was a BungledSuicide: it just made Lucy mad.]] Some productions hint that Sweeney himself is driven to this after crossing the DespairEventHorizon when he realized [[spoiler:he killed his wife.]] Take note of the concert production: the audience can see him unbutton his collar to make it easier [[spoiler:for Toby to slit his throat in a technical SuicideByCop.]]

* This is a part of the Tin Man's backstory in ''Theatre/TheKansasCollection''. He was a man named Nick Chopper who lost his love due to the Wicked Witch of the East. Without his love, he became suicidal. He tried to kill himself but became the Tin Man instead.
* In ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Danganronpa The Stage]]'', Monokuma adds a new rule saying that if the students manage to successfully pinpoint the blackened, then any dissenters will be [[CruelAndUnusualDeath executed]] with them. Upon finding out that [[spoiler:Mondo Owada]] is the second blackened, [[spoiler:Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] votes for himself. The implications are clear.

** ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'', in its tragic [[TearJerker tearjerking]] finale, has poor Cio-Cio-San committing ''[[Seppuku jigai]]'' with the dagger given to her by the Mikado after learning that her lover Pinkerton has truly abandoned her, and has married another, and is going to take away his son, the only joy in Cio-Cio-San's life.

** ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'', in its tragic [[TearJerker tearjerking]] finale, has poor Cio-Cio-San committing ''{{seppuku}}'' with the dagger given to her by the Mikado after learning that her lover Pinkerton has truly abandoned her, and has married another, and is going to take away his son, the only joy in Cio-Cio-San's life.

[[quoteright:350:[[Theatre/MadameButterly https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madame_butterfly.jpg]]]]

* The stage version of ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' sees Queen Elsa nearly DrivenToSuicide by her guilt.

* In ''Theatre/TheChildrensHour'' [[spoiler:Martha]] commits suicide due to various reasons, mostly stemming from [[spoiler:heavy {{gayngst}}]]. She considers her and her best friends lives ruined because of said rumor, a rumor that occured because [[spoiler:she ''did'' have feelings for Karen]]. Karen's fiance [[spoiler:leaving her due to doubting her fidelity]] only made everything worse. Combine this extra stress and guilt with the fact she's a lesbian in TheTwenties (possibly TheThirties) and the fact she has an unrequited love and...

* In Theatre/{{Heathers}} [[spoiler: Martha Dunnstock]] and [[spoiler: Heather McNamara]] are good examples of this, but [[spoiler: Martha’s]] fails and [[spoiler: Heather’s]] is interrupted

* In Marsha Norman's '''night, Mother'' a woman nonchalantly tells her mother she's planning to commit suicide that night, leading to a long dialogue in which Mama tries to talk her out of it. [[spoiler:Mama is unsuccessful.]]

* The stage version of ''Film/{{Frozen}}'' sees Queen Elsa nearly DrivenToSuicide by her guilt.

* In act two of ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' and real life, [[spoiler: Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria killed himself via gunshot. This is stylized in the show as a frenetic dance with Death and the angels, though some actor choose to have Death force the gun to Rudolf's temple.]]