David Hare: The ‘Vertical Hour’

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by Laura Lai/ Review

David Hare’s play ‘Vertical Hour’ was published at Farber & Farber in 2008. It had its world première on November 30^th, 2006 at the Music Box Theater in New York City. Its first British production was at the Royal Court Theater London on January 17^th, 2008.

Readers become acquainted with David Hare’s political philosophy and his view on global politics through the two acts and the five characters of the play: Nadia Blye (mid 30s – former war correspondent, currently teaching international relations at Yale University), Dennis Dutton (student), Terri Scholes (student), Philip Lucas (Nadia’s boyfriend) and Oliver Lucas (mid 50s – Philip’s father).  

The play starts with love, when Dennis discussing his written essay tells Nadia that he is in love with her, as well as with the unfairness of the human nature: ‘We know for a fact that human life by its nature tends towards unfairness’ (p.4). And as politics is made by people, politics needs a checks-and-balances system. This constitutes one of the differences between the capitalist and the communist systems. But it is not the only difference. The liberal democracy’s (or the ‘consumer democracy’) idea for Hare is the freedom of discussing and of freely exchanging ideas. He also acknowledges that ‘In the West, we no longer become famous for what we do, simply for what happens to you. We celebrate victims, not heroes’ (p. 23).

          Nadia’s trip to Wales together with Philip, in order to visit Oliver Lucas is an opportunity for the reader to discover new details about Nadia’s past, or the reasons why Philip chose to go to the United States. The reader learns from a father-son discussion the way the two lovers met: ‘The first time I met her, she was carrying a book ‘Pas de pshychologie, pas de psychose’. For David Hare it was an opportunity to introduce us his political philosophy and the concept of ‘patriotism’ and the role of the politicians: ‘An appeal to patriotism is a contradiction in terms. Especially when made by politicians’ (Oliver, p.32). ‘Politicians only speak to please. Or to pre-empt an argument. Or to fill an uncomfortable silence’ (Oliver, p. 65).

The play ends with the breakup of Nadia (from Philip) and the fragility of the human nature, as Terri (in her 20s) while discussing her essay with Nadia confesses her breakup with her boyfriend and how she wants to give up university (despite Nadia’s encouragement not to) because everything in campus reminds her of him, and because she can’t stand seeing him with another girl. Terri is African-American and is described by David Hare as ‘a highly intelligent person’ (p. 106). For David Hare this teacher-student discussion is an opportunity to tackle the superficiality of students in writing political essays, viewed as being a ‘serious discipline’ and not a talk show or some sort of ‘Let’s go into a studio and say stupid things’ (p. 107). Through the teacher – student discussion on a written essay, David Hare makes his readers acquainted with his view on global politics, in particular the Iraq War during President George Bush:

‘Iraq was irrelevant to the war of terror. The point of the action was its very arbitrariness. To demonstrate to any possible enemy of the US that no one should ever consider themselves safe.’ (p. 107)

This play makes references to Richard Nixon and to the Balkan War, too. I am personally delighted to have chosen from the shelf of the Oxford Public Library this play: the ‘Vertical Hour’. David Hare is a recommended playwright for both experienced and novice drama writers. I was personally interested in ‘studying’ his play as a novice playwright, but I discovered that it was interesting for me as a political scientist, too. It also reminded of me, when I was Terri’s age and had my chance to go to Yale University. But the opportunity came in one of the worse moments, when my mother was severely ill. I reflected well upon the impact of such a news in such a moment and I have decided that although I have the head to go further, I don’t have the heart for it. If something bad had happened, a diploma would not have helped me to forgive myself in front of my conscience for having been selfish. David Hare’s character, Nadia, reminded me of that episode:

‘It’s a choice, isn’t it? How we live. How we behave. You make a choice. At some point in your life you think: there must be an intelligent way to live. And you make a choice. Maybe you don’t even remember. Everything conspires to make you forget. But the choice is there. You made it.’ (p.14)

Indeed, I think: Did I make the choice to read this particular book, or the book chose me to read it? Whatever the answer, David Hare’s play, the ‘Vertical Hour’, motivated me to deepen my writing studies and inspired me to write political dramas.