The Breath of Life

by David Hare

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge." Gauguin's epigram serves as the motto for this moral tale of two women, both in their sixties, whose lives are interwoven in ways neither of them yet understands. Madeline Palmer is a retired curator, living alone on the Isle of Wight. One day Frances Beale comes to her door, a woman she has met only once, who is now enjoying sudden success, late in life, as a popular novelist. The result is a surprising and profound meditation on what can emerge when a man's wife and mistress finally confront each other.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2002

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

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This play is remorselessly, sadistically dull, dripping with the smugness of an author writing an acting showcase for two stars (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in the original London show) with no concern for the audience. It's little wonder it seldom gets revived.

While there are some terrific lines, and Hare throws in a nice joke every ten minutes or so, the play as a whole is drab and lifeless. Despite one character declaring that she refuses to be defined by the men in her life, the pair spend the whole play discussing their relationship with the absent Martin, who comes across as feckless, shallow and lacking in any quality deserving a moment of either woman's attention, let alone forty years of near-obsession. Madeleine's reply to Frances: "Of course. But what are you saying?" seems to sum the whole play up.

Neither character develops during the course of the evening; there are no surprises and no change in the dynamic between the two women. The pace is relentlessly pedestrian and the action never gets more dramatic than Frances smoking a cigarette. In fact, the play is so visually inert that it would be better suited to radio. I saw this in my local theatre, and apart from the two superb acting performances, nobody I spoke to in the interval or at the end had a good word to say about the play itself.

When, in the final scene, Frances describes the previous night as "interminable", she's not wrong. For a playwright of Hare's supposed calibre, this really isn't good enough.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just over twenty years ago, I saw the London production of David Hare’s The Breath of Life, starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. I remember both legendary actresses were incredible—as expected—but I realized recently I had no memory of what the play was about. So I got a copy and read it. Hare’s two character play has Madeleine, a free spirit, visited by Frances, a button-upped novelist, trying to make sense, with this meeting between the two, of her husband’s infidelity. During the course of an afternoon, a night, and a morning, the two discuss their lives and, actually, the meaning of life, eventually coming to the conclusion that truly living means accepting “the breath of life” in all its intricacies. I must say, this time around, I was much impressed by Hare’s play. Perhaps I was starstruck when seeing it and didn’t really listen, or perhaps I was exhausted from seeing five plays in six days, but what enriched my reading was envisioning Smith and Dench, either from imagination or memory, I know not which. I only know that that theater trip was a delight, and to relive it after all these years is a double-delight.

[lara phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walked out at intermission when this was performed locally because they'd just replaced an actress and she was still using the script. But I wanted to find out how it ended, so I read it.

This play originally premiered in London with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in the two (only) roles. They could probably make the phone book into compelling drama. As is, the play is a little too British and a little too 'women of a certain age" for me to connect with it. It's never been on Broadway in the US, probably because who do we have that could follow in the footsteps of Maggie and Judi?

[Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating two-hander with a smackdown climax. I would have paid good money to be able to see Maggie Smith & Judi Dench do it. However, the ending feels a little wanting. As though the closure both women get is too much of a perfect ending. Perhaps, it’s actually a reflection of the nature of female interaction, in which case it’s etherial of the female form.

[Pers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and very intense play which I *really* wish I could've seen in London - Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith must have been phenomenal. Fortunately I was able to picture the two of them while reading the play, and although it wasn't as good as seeing the play, it did help.

[Selina]

The plot of The Breath of Life reminds me of the play Enigma Variations by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, in which two men talked about the woman they love. In The Breath of Life Madeleine Palmer and Frances Beale reveal to each other about Martin, who has left for a younger woman in Seattle.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the play I saw performed in London by Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judy Dench. The play was 5 stars for sure...

[Andy]

Bit of a speed read -all kinds of emotions come up between the two women Frances and Madeleine...

A line towards the end -"Feel the breath of life on my face" struck me