David Hare, Plenty

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1978

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

In Plenty (1978), David Hare uses a strong-minded and unorthodox female protagonist, Susan Traherne, to explore what he sees as key aspects of Britain in the years 1943-62 – in particular, the disappointment of the hopes for transformative social and political change which had arisen around the end of World War Two. Susan is not only a troubled and driven individual character, but also seems intended to symbolize more widespread impulses, desires and aspirations which, in Hare's view, failed to find fulfilment in a postwar world in which peace and material plenty cohabited uneasily with existential and political poverty. Plenty, first staged at London's National Theatre, with Kate Nelligan as Susan, enjoyed …

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2299 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Plenty". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2760, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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