Plenty

Synopsis

Written in 1978. Plenty is centred on the life of a woman whose experiences helping the French Resistance behind enemy lines during WWII result in her finding the reality of her post-war life mundane and frustrating. Through snapshots of Susan Traherne's eyes, David Hare explores and observes a country's shift in moral standards as it struggles to redefine itself whilst choking on 'plenty' after a war, and observes Susan as she drifts into madness, taking her loving husband with her.

Our Review:

Ron Simpson - 8 February 2011

The David Hare Season at Sheffield Theatres begins with what is now acknowledged as one of the playwright’s finest early plays, Plenty (1978). However, as an admirer of Hare’s work coming to this play for the first time, I found it oddly disappointing without quite knowing why. My only consolation is that British audiences have apparently always found it more problematic than Americans.

The story promises much. As a teenager Susan Traherne has the excitement and sense of purpose of working for the SOE in occupied France. After the war her life is fragmented between living as the wife of a moderately successful diplomat and being lured into Bohemian irresponsibility by her friend Alice Park. The many short scenes do not follow chronologically. The first two cover the two poles of her existence: the break-up with her husband and the dangerous wartime adventure which she shares with an unknown man who becomes a lost ideal to her. The play ends with a sort of ...

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