If you want to consider the rise and fall of the charismatic male and can’t face switching on PMQs, you could look at the roles taken by Ralph Fiennes. Munching massive scripts as if they were single lines, Fiennes has used his magnetically prowling presence to light up Hamlet and Coriolanus, Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman and Ibsen’s The Master Builder. His repertoire is strikingly expanded in Nicholas Hytner’s production of David Hare’s new play, Straight Line Crazy, which has echoes of the Ibsen. Fiennes is the dramatiser of the singular voice; Hare at his strongest, as here, is a playwright who brings not merely individuals, but systems under scrutiny.
The career of Robert Moses slices fascinatingly across obvious political allegiances. Though never elected to public office, he was responsible for the reshaping of New York in the mid-20th century, pushing through his plans for the opening up of the city with a mixture of vision, bullying and legerdemain.
