Amy's View

Amy's View
Written by	David Hare
Characters	Amy Thomas Esme Allen Dominic Tyghe Frank Oddie Evelyn Thomas Toby Cole
Date premiered	1997
Place premiered	Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre London
Genre	Tragicomedy
Setting	Berkshire, near Pangbourne, and London, England

Amy's View was written by British playwright David Hare, and originally premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on 13 June 1997. It was directed by Richard Eyre and starred Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup and Samantha Bond in the title role. It was then performed on Broadway on 15 April 1999. It was directed again by Eyre, with Dench, Pickup and Bond reprising their roles. It was revived in November 2006 with Felicity Kendal and Jenna Russell in the lead roles and toured various English theatres until February 2007.

The play takes place in Berkshire near Pangbourne, and in London, from 1979 to 1995. Over the course of these sixteen years, "a running argument about the respective virtues of traditional theater and the media arts weaves its way through espoused opinions on marriage, love, fame, fidelity, betrayal, personal and artistic integrity, and the sometimes elusive ethics of the corporate world, among other things."

David Hare is often noted for his critical views of British society, and although Amy's View is certainly a softer example of his cultural and political commentary, it does not escape the theme. It is important to place the play within historical contexts for analysis, as throughout the sixteen years during which the play is set, Margaret Thatcher was becoming increasingly prominent and powerful within the British government and Lloyd's of London was experiencing great turmoil in dealing with insurance claims.

Hare's own bias is also quite prominent in this work. As a playwright, he combines his internal knowledge of the theater with his seemingly outsider view of popular media and filmmaking to impose negative connotations upon growing technology based entertainment. However, it is interesting to note that Hare himself has dabbled in filmmaking, and so perhaps has an unexpectedly balanced view of the two mediums and their inherent flaws and advantages.

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