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Obedience, Struggle and Revolt
By David Hare
Faber and Faber £12.99
245 pages
Dateline: 15th December, 2005
According to the New York Times quote on the back cover of this fascinating
collection of lectures and essays, David Hare is "the foremost
theatrical chronicler of contemporary British life".
In Obedience, Struggle and Revolt he reproduces the texts of
eight lengthy lectures that he has given over the last thirty years
and adds in an assortment of other articles including eulogies and several
heartfelt cries of despair about the direction in which our society
is travelling.
In various ways, much of the book involves Hare's debate with himself
and the world, as to exactly what a political playwright is and how
he must write and live his life.
There are also portraits of some great men of letters, including his
very good friend John Osborne (whose work is impressively put into context),
Harold Pinter, Raymond Williams and directo, Alan Clarke, a forgotten
genius who was best-known for his television work, including the banned
film, Scum.
After the lectures, the book closes with a series of political essays
and a lecture that, between them, are likely to offend almost every
one. Hare attacks the Arabs and the Israelis, the Church in the United
Kingdom and the shallow but dangerous politicians who are now running
Great Britain and the United States. Never forgotten is his unnamed
Bête Noir, Lady Thatcher.
It is not all doom and gloom, as there are also pieces about the nature
of art, albeit generally viewed in a political light. The best of these
is undoubtedly his lecture Why Fabulate? This explores the nature
of fiction, in response to a number of quotes about English literature
including the condemnatory Terry Eagleton, "Frankly, literature
now bores me so much I'd rather watch men digging holes in the road."
and the gullible Lord Redesdale, who was taken aback to learn that Tess
of the D'Urbervilles was not a true story.
It is perhaps ironical that since delivering this lecture to the Royal
Geographical Society in 1999, so much of the playwright's work has been
factual rather than fabulated.
While in principle, the subject-matter of this book is not the plays
of David Hare, it is inevitable that, as he talks and writes, the reader
learns much about his theatre, particularly the Absence of War
trilogy and the three recent Verbatim dramas, Via Dolorosa, The
Permanent Way and Stuff
Happens.
Obedience, Struggle and Revolt may be a slim volume but it packs
a mighty, political punch and confirms that not only is David Hare a
great playwright but he is also a deep thinker with the strongest of
views.
Articles from 2005
Articles from 2004
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
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