David Hare in Allen Ginsberg’s study © Bronwen Sharp
David Hare (born 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Presumably best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. In addition to his Academy Award nominations, Hare has received several Golden Globe Award nominations, Tony Award nominations and has won awards such as the BAFTA Award and Laurence Olivier Awards. David Hare graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge.
A selection of David Hare-titles:
MY ZINC BED
1 F / 2 M
An unusual and enigmatic play about people without religious or political beliefs and about what can fill this void before the autopsy table of zinc awaits ahead. Strong passions and pain of loneliness are hidden behind a sophisticated dialogue in this masterfully written work.
THE BLUE ROOM
1 F / 1 M
This is a modern version of Arthur Schnitzler’s famous ‘Reigen’ that is especially well-known from the 1950’ies film ‘La Ronde’ by Max Ophull. It is a most subtle and capricious comedy about sex at all times and it is most certainly well suited for some star acting by two actors, performing all ten roles.
BREATH OF LIFE
2 F
Madeleine Parker is a retired curator, who lives alone on the Isle of Wight. One day she has an unexpected visitor, the popular author Angela Beale whom she has met once before. The two women, it turns out, have shared the same man and have also both been rejected by him, in favour of a younger woman. So together, they try to understand what happened back then. A great play, which offers wonderful parts for two actresses.
SKYLIGHT
1 F / 2 M
This play portrays a love affair between a middle aged man and a younger girl. After the death of his wife, the man seeks out the girl and they continue the affair. And so we follow the dispute between the man who seemingly, has got everything, except love and a fulfilling life and the woman, who has made it her mission, to fill other people’s lives with meaning and thereby neglecting her own.
VERTICAL HOUR
2 F / 3 M
“In combat medicine, there’s this moment … after a disaster, after a shooting-there’s this moment, the vertical hour, when you can actually be of some use.” Hare’s play premiered on Broadway in 2006 starring Julianne Moore as the American Nadia Blye, a former war correspondent who now teaches political science at Yale. On a short trip to England accompanied by her boyfriend, she will find herself in a new war zone, as she is introduced to his father, a renowned British doctor, Oliver, whose culture and thoughts about the world become an unforeseen surprise and a great challenge for her and her relationship with the family. Nadia feels that it is the USA’s duty to solve the problems of other countries, and regards the invasion of Iraq as an obligation. In contrast, Oliver has been against the war from the very beginning, and considers it to be a catastrophic and bungled operation. This is an intelligent text about international politics and how people from different continents view the world differently. A packed play with good roles about politics, love and ethics.
