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Sad Stories on the British Stage
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19026 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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1 / 1991 |
2,508 Words |
| Author
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Herb Greer
Herb Greer is an American writer and playwright who lives in
Britain and on the Continent. |
Since World War II Britain's established church has developed a peculiar weakness: Faith in God has ceased to become relevant to what little public function it has left. Slowly at first, and then rapidly under the egregious Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Runcie, the poor old C of E has become apathetic analogue of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (including homo sapiens); today it is slowly drowning in a shallow metaphysical sea of anti-Toryism, celebration of the underdog (however vicious), social work, and naïve political rhetoric, strongly colored by a Marxist view of the world. Theological matters--the ordination of women, the reality (or not) of the Virgin Birth, the permissive (or not) view of homosexual clergy--have mainly appeared as a series of media sideshows, amusing to the public but insignificant in the wider world.
The fact is that any religious establishment, if it is to remain vital, must evolve and maintain a delicate compromise, blending the strong demands of an infinite, all-powerful God with the frailties and needs of mortal mankind. The power of the church, which is to say its ability to command faith and compel obedience, is directly linked to a general acceptance of its God as an active force impinging on the lives of the faithful. Little if any such acceptance exists among many, and probably most nominally Anglican Britons; so that in addition to its other problems, the C of E has precious little popular clout in the United Kingdom--far less, actually, than the newly arrived faith of Islam. In fact, the Church of England is a husk, its insides rotted away by sociology, but this does not prevent its bishops and Runcie from speaking in sanctimonious homilies as though they did exercise some sort of moral influence over the British public at large.
From all this it is obvious that the Church of England is an ideally pseudo-serious subject for a pseudo-serious playwright. When David Hare finally decided to explore its possibilities, it proved to be (a) a perfect match for his talent and (b) for him, well worth the time and effort he devoted to the work.
Racing Demon was written after a certain amount of footwork and homework, such as interviews among clergymen in and around London. Bits from these encounters are printed in the play's program. (It is always worthwhile reading the programs for Hare's plays; they give interesting clues to what he thinks he is up to as opposed to what he actually accomplishes onstage.) They make depressing reading, ranging from lugubrious frustration with the church and the leadership of Runcie and his bishops to a sad grasping at straws in
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