David Hare Plays 2 - Fanshen; A Map of the World; Saigon; The Bay at Nice; The Secret Rapture (Paperback, Main)

In 1975, David Hare co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Company, for whom he adapted Fanshen, William Hinton's book on the Chinese Revolution. Like most of Hare's political plays, Fanshen refuses to simplify complex moral issues. Focusing on the difficulties, mistakes, and corruptions of the revolution, Hare ultimately implies that those involved can learn from their mistakes and perhaps even move towards a more ideal society. After 1975, Hare began to write for the National Theatre which produced A Map of the World, which takes its title from Oscar Wilde's observation that "A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at," contrasts the cynicism of a successful novelist with an aggressive and idealistic young journalist. In Saigon, Barbara, a British woman, is a clerk at a bank in Saigon. She meets a CIA operative and the two fall in love just before the Vietcong take over the city.This unique wartime romance gives an unusual perspective of war from two Westerners ostensibly on the outside, but tied to the money and power which drives the war.

Also included in this volume are The Bay at Nice, which premiered at the National in 1986 and The Secret Rapture, which tells the story of two sisters coping with their father's death.