Acting Up

On a factual level, this riveting theater diary documents the 10 months (August 1998 to June 1999) during which Hare rehearsed and performed Via Dolorosa, his one-man play describing a 1997 visit to Israel and the Gaza Strip. More deeply, it is the record of a distinguished playwright (Plenty; The Secret Rapture; etc.) discovering what it's like to be the actor who must incarnate a writer's words in the flesh for a live audience. Although it's clear that Hare, who began his theatrical career in the 1970s, is a staunch advocate of the politically charged drama of Brecht, Shaw and Sartre, this is not a book about the Middle East conflict (Hare's sympathies seem equally divided). Instead, it gives readers an intimate sense of what it's like to work in the theater, detailed with a commendable lack of airbrushing. Hare doesn't flinch at committing to paper his childish petulance over director Stephen Daldry's sometimes distracted demeanor; he's horribly cranky about coughing audience members; and he candidly depicts the narcissism any actor must cultivate simply to preserve enough energy to do eight shows a week. He also displays warm appreciation for Daldry's contributions to the play, great generosity toward fellow playwrights (particularly Wallace Shawn, a personal friend) and tender affection for actors like Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman, packing in audiences for his plays Amy's View and The Blue Room, while Hare played to initially tiny houses in London and New York. Hare's love for theater flows from every page, most notably in a thrillingly exact description of the magic of live performance: ""The great wind of an audience blows through, and nothing is what you thought it was going to be."" (Nov.)