Via Dolorosa and When Shall We Live

by David Hare

Book Overview

In 1997, after many invitations, the fifty-year-old playwright resolved finally to visit the fifty-year-old state of Israel. The resulting play, written to be performed by the author himself, offers a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571197523
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.2" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Moving and humorous monologue

I first saw this piece performed by David Hare himself as a monologue. As with all plays, a certain amount of drama and charm is lost when the printed edition is the only version experienced. I saw the language and sarcasm as simultaneously refreshing, especially for those who are pessimistic about the Middle East situation, and poetic, often illustrating and describing scenes and people with warmth and edge.I would highly recommend finding the dramatic staging of this piece, but this edition is still a beautiful essay.

Hare's work shines

Fortunately i had the luck to actually see David Hare perform Via Dolorosa on Broadway, not once, but twice this past spring. In fact, I was able to see nearly 30 plays in five months as part of a Duke University program taught in Manhattan. My three favorite straight plays were 1. Amy's View, 2. Death of a Salesman, 3. Via Dolorosa. What I appreciated most about Hare's two plays was his ability to reveal the complexity, stubborness, and nobility, closely bordering stoicism, that pervades the human condition. As an agnostic and an American I was overcome by the honest critique offered by Hare. Here is someone who has wrestled with the moral and ethical dillemas and subsequently infused them into his work. I excuse his humor, because, sometimes things are so horrible all we can do is laugh, and if we cannot, then it is truly a sad thing. Stones or ideas? When shall we live? So what if you don't like all his answers, at least he's raising the right questions.I do not expect, nor do I particularily want Hare to moderate a Palestinian/Isreali debate. What I do want is for him to dig out and contextualize the emotional elements that ground this tragic situation. As a Westerner, I understand how this passion can captivate someone from a culture in desperate need of something to live for besides material wealth. Hare accomplished exactly what he set out to do, and we are in his debt for it.