Lucas Simonian Drama Wednesday, 30 April 2014

The Works of David Hare and Howard Brenton

David Hare
David Hare was born in Sussex in 1947. He is the author of twenty-eight plays for the stage.
Sixteen have been performed in the National Theatre. They include Plenty, Pravda (with
Howard Brenton), The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, The Absence of War, Skylight, Amy's
View, The Blue Room (from Schnitzler), The Judas Kiss, Via Dolorosa, Stuff Happens, The
Vertical Hour, Gethsemane, The Power of Yes and South Downs. He has also written plays
by Brecht, Gorky, Chekhov, Pirandello and Lorca, in English. His many screenplays for film
and television include Licking Hitler, Wetherby, Damage, The Hours, The Reader and Page
Eight. David writes a lot of political plays, for example Fanshen, originally a book about the
Chinese Revolution. Fanshen refuses to show clearly moral issues, David Hares adaptation
focusses on the difficulties, mistakes and corruption of the revolution. Hare uses his work to
show the audience who watches the play that those involved can learn from their mistakes
and perhaps even move to a more ideal society. Davids work that is considered to be his
best was the play Plenty, which is about a woman who served in the French Resistance in
WW2 but finds herself concerned about post war Britain.
Howard Brenton
Howard Brenton is a British playwright, recognised for his controversial political plays of the
1970s and 80s. He became resident dramatist at the Royal Court in 1972, following on from
David Hare, who he did Pravda with. His plays include Revenge, Brassneck also a
collaboration with David Hare, The Churchill Play, Epsom Downs, and The Romans in
Britain, Berlin Bertie, Paul, Never So Good, and In Extremis. Brentons has now written 40
plays, either alone or in collaboration with other playwrights, mostly David Hare. Howard
Brenton is seen more than anyone in Britain today a play writer that epitomizes Bertolt
Brechts legacy. His contribution to left wing theatre is alike to Bertolt Brecht. This is
because he uses a lot of epic theatre.
Howard Brenton David Hare