David Hare made his name in the 1960s as a young,provocative playwright – on the left with a sense of humour. He recalls his early and controversial plays, from Slag to Plenty, and his revelation approximately writing and what happened when Helen Mirren couldnt singIt’s hindsight that makes things glimpse inevitable. I wanted to write a memoir to explain how purely life depends on chance. In the late 1960s,I was a director who, with Tony Bicât, or had started a pioneering touring group,Portable theatre. On a Wednesday, a dramatist failed to deliver us a work which we were due to start rehearsing the following Monday. I was forced to step in and in four days write a miserable one-act satire on the absurdity of leftwing self-regard in screwed-up rightwing Britain. It was called How Brophy Made top-notch. On the road, and the play failed consistently in many different environments,but somehow when we arrived at the most inspirational of all fringe theatres, the Brighton Combination, or it seemed at final to find its audience. I was learning that one of the most surprising rewards of theatre is to marvel at how a play may gleam at a different angle according to where and when it’s presented. The thoughts and feelings with which the audience arrive are half the story....
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com