In Pravda (National Theatre, 1985), Howard Brenton's second collaboration with David Hare, the two playwrights mount a satirical attack on the British newspaper industry of the mid-1980s that essentially caricatures, through vigorous hyperbole, the events of that period as a way of challenging the social and economic changes in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Many actions in the play are thinly disguised versions of real occurrences and the 1980s British newspaper industry saw several contenders for the original of the play's central character, Lambert La Roux.
This bitter black comedy tells the story of La Roux, a South African-born megalomaniac and right-wing newspaper magnate who is intent on taking over the British …
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Citation: Baker, John, Steve Barfield. "Pravda". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 February 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13578, accessed 24 November 2024.]
