The Vertical Hour

Synopsis

Nadia Blye knows exactly what her stance is on Iraq. A former war reporter and Professor of International Relations at Yale, she has advised the President and seen action in Sarajevo and Baghdad. She is sure of her place in the world and her opinion of it. Until, that is, she meets an equally opinionated and lethally charming man - her boyfriend's father - over a weekend in Shropshire. His intervention has far-reaching consequences for them all.

Our Review:

23 January 2008

Before the dawn comes up, on a hill overlooking Shropshire in the Welsh borders, an American academic tells a British doctor that “the vertical hour” is that moment in combat, after a disaster, after a shooting, “when you can actually be of some use.” What are the practical responsibilities of medicine? What, indeed, is the best treatment for political wounds?

Nadia Blye (Indira Varma) is visiting Oliver Lucas (Anton Lesser) on a break from Yale. She carries with her the impact of her experience as a war correspondent in the Balkans and a mixed bag of feelings about the war in Iraq which, in the initial stages, she has supported. She has travelled to Britain with Oliver’s son, Philip (Tom Riley), a physical therapist who is scarred in a different way, by his family background.

David Hare’s play was premiered on Broadway in late 2006 with Bill Nighy and Julianne Moore in a production by Sam Mendes. Reports were mixed. [Jeremy Her...

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Latest User Review

Lynette - 29 February 2008:

Not one of Hare's best plays by a million miles. talking about Iraq doesn't make a brilliant play; three underwritten characters, cliched relationships, clunky staging. Could do better. ...

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