Acting Up

After writing a monologue on the subject of Israel and Palestine, David Hare forced himself to make his debut on the professional stage at the age of fifty-one. When his success at London's austere Royal Court theatre led to an invitation to appear in New York at a somewhat flashier Broadway venue, Hare was transformed from a shadowy playwright into an actor alone on the stage every night for ninety minutes.

Hare's hilarious diary of his experience on both sides of the Atlantic tells of his ...