(Dalya Alberge’s article appeared in the Observer, 1/28.)
One of Britain’s foremost playwrights has launched a forthright attack on European concept directors who camp up and distort classic plays in a way that is “beginning to infect” British theatre.
Sir David Hare’s damning criticisms of so-called “theatre makers” are included in a wide-ranging interview for a forthcoming book.
In one passage, Hare refers to “state of England” plays as “the strongest line in British theatre”. He recalls Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth’s award-winning playabout national identity, which opened at the Royal Court in 2009 with Mark Rylance as a roguish ne’er-do-well. Hare describes it as “the last surpassingly successful play in that tradition”.
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Photo: The Telegraph.
