Book description
John Blakemore is a solitary boy who finds it impossible either to
understand or adapt to the ways of the school. His adolescent
earnestness put off teacher and pupil alike. And now suddenly he seems
to be in danger of losing his only friend. David Hare's emotional new
play, written at the invitation of the Rattigan estate as a response
to The Browning Version, is a meditation on faith, learning and
teenage friendship, played against the backdrop of a Britain still
fighting to maintain an established rule. Collected with South Downs
is the text of Hare's lecture Mere Fact, Mere Fiction, delivered to
the Royal Society of Literature in 2010. In a famous defence of
documentary theatre, the author celebrates the power of metaphor to
transform factual quite as much as fictional material.
David Hare was born in Sussex in 1947. He is the author of 28 plays
for the stage, sixteen of which have been seen at the National Theatre.
These include PLENTY, THE SECRET RAPTURE, SKYLIGHT, AMY'S VIEW, VIA
DOLOROSA, STUFF HAPPENS, GETHSEMANE and THE POWER OF YES. In 1993, three
plays about the Church, the Law and the Labour Party - RACING DEMON,
MURMURING JUDGES, and THE ABSENCE OF WAR - were presented in repertory
in the Olivier Theatre. His many screenplays for cinema and television
include LICKING HITLER, DAMAGE, THE HOURS and THE READER. He directed
his most recent television film PAGE EIGHT for the BBC.
