Product Description

What is a political playwright? Does theatre have any direct effect on society? Why choose to work in a medium which speaks to so few? Is theatre itself facing oblivion? Since 1978, Hare has sought to address these and other questions in occasional lectures given both in Britain and abroad. Bringing to the lectern the same wit, insight and gift for the essential for which his plays are known, Hare presents the distilled result of a lifetime's sustained thinking about art and politics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218599 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"'It is well written, full of passionate energy and completely unafraid of grappling with ideas and mocking the cant of the day. Long may Hare care enough to write like this.' Aleks Sierz, Independent"

About the Author
David Hare has written over twenty stage plays, among them Plenty, The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, and Stuff Happens. He has adapted into English plays by Pirandello, Brecht, Chekhov, Schnitzler, Lorca and Gorky.

Customer Reviews

Oh, for a sixth star!
This is ASTOUNDING.
These collected lectures have at their heart the role of art, of theatre and of what it means to us: why we need stories to understand our world and our fellows.
As powerful, compassionate and heartfelt as Hare's brilliant plays, I cannot recommend this collection more strongly.

Engaging thoughts from a top playwright
I prepare scripts for people to perform as lectures so I was interested to read how David Hare puts his public performances together.

I found each of these talks stimulating and easy to read, even when the subject matter was very much targeted at the theatrical in-crowd. Hare can be an incy-bit pretentious at times, but you forgive him.