The Breath of Life

Description

"Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge". Gauguin's epigram serves as the motto for this moral tale of two women, both in their 60s, whose lives are interwoven in ways neither of them yet understands. Madeline Palmer is a retired curator, living alone on the Isle of Wight. One day to her door comes Angela Beale, a woman she has met only once, who is now enjoying sudden success, late in life, as a popular novelist. The progress of a single night comes to echo the hidden course of their lives.

David Hare is one of Britain's most internationally performed playwrights. Born in Sussex in 1947, he had a long association with Britain's National Theatre, which produced eleven of his plays successively between 1978 and 1997. A trilogy about the church, the law and the Labour Party - Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges and The Absence of War - was presented in repertory at the Olivier Theatre in 1993. Nine of his best-known plays, including Plenty, The Secret Rapture, Skylight, The Blue Room, Amy's View, The Judas Kiss and Via Dolorosa - in which he performed - have also been performed on Broadway. David Hare's most recent play, The Breath of Life, premi red at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in October 2002.

"David Hare has been described by The Times as 'Britain's leading contemporary playwright' and by the New York Post as 'one of the few major playwrights in our language'.