David Hare: Obedience, Struggle And Revolt

Hare is too realistic to expect the playwright ever to usurp the brewer, the pop star or the TV soap in the affections of the nation. (He also delights in pointing out that dramaturgy is one of few careers where drinking heavily is no impediment to success.) But he has fought tirelessly to present people with spectacles that might move them with cruel honesty about the world and thereby fight injustice. He has despised theatreland's love of mouldy relics from the classical repertoire propped up with middle-class angst or, worse still, with aristocratic wit. Better outrage than complacency. Better John Osborne than Noel Coward.

Guild member David Hare's new collection of essays, Obedience, Struggle And Revolt, reviewed by Rafael Behr in The Observer.

There are also (less favourable) reviews in The Independent and The Daily Telegraph (free registration required).