Hare Bashes Out Blair Political Drama???

Playwright David Hare, currently appearing in his meditative Middle East monologue Via Dolorosa in the West End, has been ruminating on his next big work. He is said to be planning a political drama about life in New Labour's Britain under Tony Blair. It was in 1993 that Hare's The Absence of War rather unkindly dissected the party and portrayed the previous Labour leader Neil Kinnock as a powerless and imperilled figure. That piece was part of Hare's celebrated trilogy - which also comprised Racing Demon about the Church of England and Murmuring Judges about the legal system - at the National Theatre. Perhaps the new piece could find its premiere on the South Bank too? Artistic director-designate Nicholas Hytner is reportedly keen on the idea. Wherever and whenever the play surfaces, don't necessarily expect Feelgood-style wickedness or an unrelenting Blair-bashing. Hare has told Sunday Times columnist Richard Brooks that he actually sympathises with Blair who he sees as a good man manipulated by his own spin doctors.

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