In this play Hare not only mentions how difficult it is for the establishment to give up their idealistic vision of the continuation of the Empire but he also portrays the partnership between England and America. By describing personal experiences of his characters he reflects the political mood of the time. The disillusion and the lack of direction of his characters who can’t cope with their situation is comparable to the political conditions. “Within the context of English political history these events are not extraneous, coincidental happenings; they have a direct bearing on and relationship to the characters’ actions and thoughts. We do not see the events take place, but we see their impact on English lives“ 8 .
But Hare’s work is not only a historical play but also somehow a tragedy. Critics claim that the dramas hero is destructive and that the play is “essentially tragic” 9 .
Susan belongs to one of Hare’s characters that share “a tragic sense of life …against the odds, they defy the repression and inhumanity around them even if it means self-destruction. 10 ”
Plenty by David Hare
First I want to explain the title of the play and describe what sub-genre it belongs to.
Then I am going to give a short summary of “Plenty” and show the structure of this play.
Afterwards I’m going to talk about the main characters and I’m giving a closer interpretation of important ideas of this drama.
Now - the title of the play:
In “Plenty” David Hare wants to show his audience that the Second World War and the collapse of the British Empire were followed by a time of welfare and abundance. One of the main characters states, “We’re all going to be rich….Peace and plenty.”1 And later the protagonist herself claims, “There is plenty. Shall we eat again?”2 and “We’re rotten with cash”3 All this plenty “rots”4 people and often means a loss of ideals and moral values. David Hare describes this climate of disorientation in the post-war society of Britain. In the end we are told that “too much money. …that’s what went wrong. Something about it corrupts one’s will to live”5.
Sub-genre: “Plenty” a historical play and time of setting
In the following passage I want to show what sub-genre this play belongs to, I want to give some reasons for this classification and consequently I am going to explain in which period of time the action takes place.
David Hare’s work “Plenty” is one of the best of the string of history plays. The historical context in which the action takes place is the time after World War II., the decline of the British Empire. (“…as our empire collapses, there is little to believe in…”6 ). But even important steps of British foreign policy like the Suez crisis are touched. (“the entire war is a fraud cooked up by the British as an excuse for seizing the canal…”7 ) The play allows access to the frequent inept diplomacy at that time which was often a failure (so for example the role Britain had in the Suez invasion). Very often the commentaries on the state of British post-war society are rather satirical.
Key themes like capitalism, imperialism and social inequity dominated and influenced the author’s work when he wrote “Plenty”.
In this play Hare not only mentions how difficult it is for the establishment to give up their idealistic vision of the continuation of the Empire but he also portrays the partnership between England and America. By describing personal experiences of his characters he reflects the political mood of the time. The disillusion and the lack of direction of his characters who can’t cope with their situation is comparable to the political conditions. “Within the context of English political history these events are not extraneous, coincidental happenings; they have a direct bearing on and relationship to the characters’ actions and thoughts. We do not see the events take place, but we see their impact on English lives“8.
But Hare’s work is not only a historical play but also somehow a tragedy. Critics claim that the dramas hero is destructive and that the play is “essentially tragic”9.
Susan belongs to one of Hare’s characters that share “a tragic sense of life …against the odds, they defy the repression and inhumanity around them even if it means self-destruction.10 ”
Structure of the play
The next important point is the structure of the play. By explaining the composition of this drama I am obliged to mention simultaneously the place of its setting as well as its time.
At the center of the play is Susan Traherne “who had a good war, but then is disillusioned by peace.11 ”. But the action is not limited to a short time and one place. The author does not keep to strong dramatic rules. He traces his heroine across 20 years and he leads us to many different places of action. In this drama there are no acts, but twelve scenes.
Here on this overhead transparency you can see an overview of these twelve scenes. You will notice that the action jumps backwards and forwards. The author takes us through snapshots from France in 1943 to London in the 60s. There is no chronological sequence of events.
He begins in 1962 in London, then there is a flashback to the year 1943. This time the action is set in France. Four years later we accompany Susan to Brussels and then back to London again. In the end we are back in the year 1944 in France. This back and forth of action and the use of flashbacks etc. is typical for screenplays.
In addition to this “there is little transition between the scenes- the unity of the play lies in “12 the character of the protagonist.
Overhead transparency:
Scene One: Knightsbridge. Easter 1962
Scene Two: St. Benoit. November 1943 Scene Three: Brussels. June 1947
Scene Four: Pimlico. September 1947
Scene Five: Temple. May 1951
Scene Six: Pimlico. December 1952
Scene Seven: Knightsbridge. October 1956
Scene Eight: Knightsbridge. July 1961
Scene Nine: Whitehall. January 1962
Scene Ten: Knightsbridge. Easter 1962
Scene Eleven: Blackpool. June 1962
Scene Twelve: St. Benoit. August 1944
Summary
The author’s inspiration for the play came from a statistic that said that “75 per cent of women flown behind the lines for the Special Operations Executive”13 during the war were divorced in the years after.
And in the first scene - as if wanting to prove this - the protagonist is about to leave her husband - the diplomat Block- , whose career she has ruined. Then the drama switches back to France in 1943.
Susan is a former undercover agent in occupied wartime France. She is 17- years old and meets Lazar who is dropped by parachute into Gestapo country. She tells him under tears about her friend Tony, who has been imprisoned in a concentration camp in Buchenwald.
Back in England she idealizes her work in the French Resistance movement and her brief love affair with the undercover Lazar.
While Susan is on a holiday in Brussels her male companion -Tony the friend from her days in the French Resistance dies of a heart disease. At the British embassy she meets Leonard Darwin the British Ambassador and Raymond Brock his third secretary, who helps her to bring the body back home. Raymond- a Foreign Service officer and diplomat - is fascinated by Susan and her free life style. He regularly visits her in her apartment which she shares with Alice a bohemian and eccentric artist.
Susan has different jobs in business and then pursues a career in advertising In 1951 she dates Mick - a black-marketer from the East End - and she hires this man from a “different class” to help her have a baby because she does not want to marry or to have any emotional attachment in order to conceive a child and get pregnant.. But her attempts (essay) fail. She experiences a mental breakdown. When she fires her revolver at him we witness her for the first time as being somewhat “mad”. Raymond Brock wants to rescue her from her personal decline. At last Susan gives in and settles into a marriage with him.
[...]
1 Hare, David: Plenty. Faber und Faber, London, 1978, p. 38
2 ibid, p. 57
3 ibid, p. 65
4 ibid, p. 77
5 ibid, p. 74
6 ibid, p. 72
7 ibid, p. 53
8 Glomb, Stefan: Erinnerung und Identität im britischen Gegenwartsdrama. Gunther Narr Verlag, Tübingen, 1997, p. 126
9 Wu, Duncan: Six contemporary dramatists. Macmillan Education LDT, London, 1995, p. 102
10 ibid, p. 102
11 www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/12/07/hare/print.html (24/10/03)
12 Dean, Joan FitzPatrick: David Hare. Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1990, p. 52
13 Page, Malcom: File on Hare. Methuen Drama, London, 1990, p. 43
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