The Secret Rapture And Other Plays

A collection of five plays from the Tony Award–winning playwright and screenwriter, “the premiere political dramatist writing in English” (The Washington Post). David Hare, “Britain’s leading contemporary playwright,” has established a unique reputation for plays that are at once personal and political, deeply serious and incredibly funny (The Times). He is the author of seventeen plays, many of which have been presented on Broadway. Included in this collection are Fanshen; A Map of the World; Saigon: Year of the Cat; The Bay at Nice; and The Secret Rapture. Of the title play, Frank Rich of The New York Times said, “The Secret Rapture has gone further than before in marrying political thought to the compelling drama of lives that refuse to conform to any ideology’s utopian plan . . . Mr. Hare embraces the human, messy though it may be.” Praise for David Hare Fanshen “The nearest any English contemporary writer has come to emulating Brecht.” —Financial Times A Map of the World “Mr. Hare’s A Map of the World, which passionately embraces utopia without arrogantly presuming to annex it, is original and provocative.” —The New York Times Saigon “An impressive new film which vividly captures the last desperate days in Vietnam as the Reds laid siege to the sweltering city.” —Daily Express The Bay at Nice “Witty, cerebral, and full of fine-spun ironies.” —The Guardian The Secret Rapture “His writing, as always, is smart, and this time, glorious. The characters are unhackneyed and complex; the insights are tough and hard to ignore.” —New York Newsday

An elderly antiquarian bookseller has just died at his home in the country. His two daughters come to attend to things. Isobel, who has been nursing him, is a partner in a small design firm. Marion is in politics - already a junior minister. It is Marion's profession to provide answers, and to back those who offer solutions, but not all human situations yield to a professional approach - least of all when they involve their junior step-mother Katherine. In this elegantly constructed play, a mordant comedy of manners deepens into a painfully unsparing examination of the consequences of applying principled pragmatism to human feelings. 'David Hare has written one of the best English plays since the war and established himself as the finest British dramatist of his generation.' John Peter, Sunday Times

A Study Guide for David Hare's "The Secret Rapture," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

David Hare is one of the most important playwrights to have emerged in the UK in the last forty years. This volume examines his stage plays, television plays and cinematic films, and is the first book of its kind to offer such comprehensive and up-to-date critical treatment. Contributions from leading academics in the study of modern British theatre sit alongside those from practitioners who have worked closely with Hare throughout his career, including former Director of the National Theatre Sir Richard Eyre. Uniquely, the volume also includes a chapter on Hare's work as journalist and public speaker; a personal memoir by Tony Bicât, co-founder with Hare of the enormously influential Portable Theatre; and an interview with Hare himself in which he offers a personal retrospective of his career as a film maker which is his fullest and clearest account of that work to date.

"When Isobel and her sister Marion lose their father, all they have left is a hefty inheritance. Enter Patrick, who manages to manipulate his way between the sisters - with violent consequences." [box cover note].

The prequel story to the award-winning and bestselling video game franchise. How the majesty of Rapture, the shining city below the sea, became an instant dystopia It's the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing...and many are desperate to take that freedom back. Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science—where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture—the shining city below the sea. But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be...and how it all ended. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This second volume of plays by David Hare contains work from the 1970s and 1980s which confirmed him as one of the major contemporary playwrights in the English language. It includes Fanshen, his remarkable 1975 play which focused on the Chinese Revolution with Brechtian subtlety, his screenplay for Saigon: Year of the Cat, The Secret Rapture, his biting portrait of a family in crisis, and the plays A Map of the World and The Bay at Nice. The collection is introduced by the author.

An elderly antiquarian bookseller has just died at his home in the country. His two daughters come to attend to things. Isobel, who has been nursing him, is a partner in a small design studio. Marion is in politics-- already a junior minister. It is Marion's profession to provide answers, and to back those who offer solutions, but not all human situations yield to a professional approach-- least of all when they involve their junior step-mother Katherine, a drop-out whom their father quixotically rescued.