Amy's View

by David Hare

1979. Esme Allen is a well-known West End actress at just the moment when the West End is ceasing to offer actors a regular way of life. The visit of her young daughter, Amy, with a new boyfriend sets in train a series of events which only find their shape sixteen years later.

David Hare's new play, which mixes love, death, and the theatre in a heady and original way, was sold out at the National Theatre, and transferred to the West End in January 1998.

This is the definitive version of Amy's View.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Audiobook, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Sir David Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Most notable for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hours in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Reader in 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink.

On West End, he had his greatest success with the plays Plenty, which he adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep in 1985, Racing Demon (1990), Skylight (1997), and Amy's View (1998). The four plays ran on Broadway in 1982–83, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively, earning Hare three Tony Award nominations for Best Play for the first three and two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Other notable projects on stage include A Map of the World, Pravda, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War and The Vertical Hour. He wrote screenplays for the film Wetherby and the BBC drama Page Eight (2011).

As of 2013, Hare has received two Academy Award nominations, three Golden Globe Award nominations, three Tony Award nominations and has won a BAFTA Award, a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and two Laurence Olivier Awards. He has also been awarded several critics' awards such as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and received the Golden Bear in 1985. He was knighted in 1998.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ha...

Reviews

[BrokenTune · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing about this audiobook was that it was a full cast production of Amy's View with two of my favourites: Judi Dench and Samantha Bond.

Incidentally, the last time I saw a play by David Hare, it also starred Dame Judi.

Unfortunately, and this may be an indictment of the effects that Hare's play have on me, I can't remember the title of the play or what it was about. In fact, only weeks after listening to Amy's View, I can hardly remember what the story of the play was and whether it had a message to convey.

In short, the performance was great, but there is little substance to the play.

I would love to give a summary but all I can remember is that the play is about a dysfunctional family and focuses on the relationship between an actress mother and her daughter, and later with her son-in-law. The mother disapproves of the daughter's relationship with an art critic and this causes a rift between the women which reveals their life's illusions. Blah, blah, blah....

[massmarketbareback · Rating 3 out of 5]

give me a few hours and i’ll end up giving this 5 stars

[Anton Segers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een theatertekst zoals ze die helaas -nooit?- meer schrijven, intelligent, met veel empathie, rijk aan resonanties, zeker op psychologisch vlak maar ook maatschappelijk, over de neergang van het theater en de opgang van de massamedia.
De tweestrijd tussen moeder en dochter, elk vanuit haar perspectief, met de beste bedoelingen, maar onoplosbaar en pijnlijk, sleept je mee, vaak verrassend, qua identificatie voortdurend wisselend, ultiem pakkend.

[Daphne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not my favorite play. Thought the story and structure was interesting enough, but I hated most of the characters (particularly Esme). I would have given this 3 stars, or maybe even 4 stars, but I hated her so much that I couldn't enjoy the story. I still want to read some of David Hare's other plays, but this one was definitely a miss.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the tougher reads of a play I’ve experienced in a while. Not for style or subject matter or language. It’s a four act play that gradually reveals its characters and themes over a slowly-paced story. In the right hands, it could take your breath away by the final curtain. But, for me, it took some getting into.

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of David Hare more than I actually like his works. I like the idea of a Leftist playwright trying to create a theatre of ideas, but last year I read Hare’s trilogy of plays about British institutions and I found them earnest rather than complex. Maybe that’s a bit harsh: they were clear and sensible and intelligent and finally a little bit obvious. He presents his ideas with skilful clarity, but finally they don’t really surprise. Amy’s View, with its four acts set over 16 years, can be thought of as a character study. It does, however, also do Issues. There is, for instance, a discourse about the status of the theatre in the modern world. The central character, Esme Allen, is a theatre actor. In the first act her daughter, Amy, returns home with a new boyfriend, Dominic, who has ambitions to be a film director and is a bit snotty about the theatre. In the second act, six years later, Dominic has become a success hosting a TV arts program which debunks the sacred cows of High Culture (including the theatre), favouring the popular – we can see the latter as a market orientated idea of culture. Esme is the more sympathetic character, Dominic appearing to be aggressive and arrogant – and we can assume the theatre audience will be more sympathetic to the arguments about the positive worth of theatre, but Hare makes things more interesting in that many of Dominic’s arguments are strong: we might be emotionally sympathetic to Esme, but Dominic will raise niggling doubts. But I prefer Amy’s View to plays such as Racing Demon or Murmuring Judges, not because the ideas are more interesting, but because I find the characters more interesting: the Big Ideas are expressed through the characters – or, rather, we can see the big ideas as part of the play’s thematic structure rather than discussion points. That Amy has chosen a man that her mother disapproves of is an important facet of their relationship. If we see this as a bad choice by Amy – in that her and Dominic’s relationship does not seem a meeting of equals or happiness – Esme’s relationship with her neighbour Frank also turns out to be unwise: he acts as her financial adviser with disastrous consequences. If Esme is more clear sighted about Amy’s relationship with Dominic than Amy is, Amy is more clear sighted about Esme’s relationship with Frank. (The financial disaster does raise an Issue about the workings of the financial industry...which pushes the play towards being a Big Ideas drama...although it hasn’t got much to do with the other Big Idea.) As a character study I think Amy’s View is an interesting work, investigating themes of failure and responsibility, but too often the Big Ideas crash and thunder around, making a lot of noise but doing little more than distracting from the play’s central interests. There are times when Amy’s View threatens to be an easy middle class, middlebrow drama – maybe the sort of theatrical experience that Dominic rails against.

[Lucile Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

11. Amy’s View by David Hare
I am not sure if I liked this play or not. Going from 1979 to 1995, it spans most of the Thatcher years. Amy’s mother, Esme Allen, is a fading stage actress who does not really want to go into television. Amy, who is pregnant, is a about to marry a very unsuitable boy, Domenic, who is an aspiring film-maker. Esme is also involved with a neighbour, Frank, who is her financial advisor. Through the years, Esme and Amy become more and more estranged, Frank manages to lose Esme's money in the Lloyd's scandal and Domenic leaves Amy. After Amy's death, Domenic comes to Esme, who is now working in television, to try to make amends. It it not until Domenic leaves that Esme opens a package he has brought, which contains enough money to pay all her debts. I would love to see Judi Dench as Esme, and there are a few clips of this on YouTube.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really grew on me as I read it. It started off a bit boring, but then I started to see the behaviors and habits of the characters which enticed me. Some of the characters were frustrating (like very), and it just made you feel for them and their lives that lead to this point. I enjoyed watching the events that shaped their lives and relationships with one another over the course of 16 years.
It was kinda like slowly peeling away at an onion until you’re left with the core.

“You know Amy’s view: you have to love people. You just have to love them. You have to fine live without any conditions at all. Just give it. And one day you will be rewarded. One day you will get it back.”

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. There wasn't much to this one. Amy's view is to be kind and patient, and her warring husband and mother-in-law figure that out way too late for Amy. But it's supposed to be sweet or something. There is also quite a bit that just seems tired and dated.

I read the play, so didn't have the benefit of Dame Judy Dench reading for me, but I doubt even her wonderfulness could have saved this one.

[Sue Corbett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly humorous and seemed to be heading for farce but, far from it, gradually getting more serious and tense. Not terribly clear sometimes but obviously highlighting tension in families and how close relationships can be forced apart through obstinacy. Rather sad.

[Brian McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the Broadway production’s final performance, yet couldn’t tell you anything about the play or any more than I liked Judi Dench.

It’s a wonderful play. So glad I revisited it more than 20 years later.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot about this play and I would like to see it performed. The only thing I didn't like was [spoiler] the random killing off of Amy before the final scene (much like the random death of Isobel in The Secret Rapture).

[Grace Leneghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the last moment of the play. A very wordy and conversational play.

[Matthew Oglesby · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s just so good

[وائل المنعم · Rating 1 out of 5]

المسرحية بها مادة خام لعمل جيد مميز، شخصيات مركبة تتعرض لمواقف فاصلة في حياتهم، وقصة تتضمن حبكة درامية جيدة، لكن التنفيذ كان دون المستوى فخرجت مسرحية مملة وبطيئة غير ممتعة.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got the chance to see Judi Dench in this play on Broadway in 2000. It was incredible. Revisiting the play by reading it 25 years later - I am still moved by it.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into three main characters and how lack of communication can cause so much grief. A must read/see...

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really disappointed by the ending. Rest of the play was great...maybe I will change my mind after thinking about it.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Gregory Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinarily moving play without a false step.