David Hare’s self absorption is simply overwhelming
October 2021.
Plan B is on the table, domestic shortages galore and we are literally up Shit Creek without a paddle.
On Sunday, though, I read an article in the Observer about playwright David Hare being furious at the BBC after it rejected his Covid play Beat The Devil – starring Ralph Fiennes. Not a euphemism.
The monologue brought to life by Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and BAFTA® nominee Ralph Fiennes details Hare’s experience with Covid-19, during which he lost 8kg in a week.
Also, Fiennes is set to play New York City power broker Robert Moses in the London world premiere of writer David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy at Bridge Theatre, London next year.
What are the chances then, I wondered, of millionaire Hare being furious that the BBC rejected his Covid monologue.
A sure bet, apparently,
“I am being silenced” said Hare in an interview to promote his autobiographical work.
Which is a bit rich coming from a bloke who has been commissioned by the National Theatre three times over the past five years.
“Everyone was very keen on the show at the BBC until it went upstairs. Suddenly, mysteriously, something they were very keen to show, they became less keen to show.
The BBC declined to comment.
He continued: “Anyone who saw Jack Thorne’s film Help, about the care home crisis, will know that actually you can make very timely and urgent work about Covid-19 and people will want to watch it.”
MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN.
And yet it seems all is not lost for the state of the nation scribe, Beat The Devil is being broadcast by Sky Arts on November 11.
Confused? Don’t be.
It is called PR. At the heart of it all, this flight of fancy is nothing more than an over-entitled and fragile ego-driven response to rejection.
Broadcasting house is right to pass.
Certainly, Hare often takes aim at the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers and their systematic failings … And we now know Britain’s early handling of the ongoing pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history.
How those of us who have survived the past year
and not concluded that we all deserved much, much better from the government I still don’t know. Yet its deeply healthy approval ratings suggest that British people didn’t think they did.
If you want to catch a real decent gem of Covid drama watch Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy let rip in the 90 minute two hander tour de force Together on BBC IPlayer – a sensational compression of lockdown hell.
Anyway, Hare performed a public service; I haven’t felt a sector roll eyes like this for ages.
Beat The Devil is on Sky Arts on November 11
