David Hare’s Memoir of Coronavirus and His Political Rage in Beat the Devil: A Covid Monologue

Abstract

In Beat the Devil: A Covid Monologue (2020), David Hare gives a personal account of his illness period during the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, from the middle of March 2020 to the first week of April. In this monologue play, Hare deals with the decay of his body under the attack of the coronavirus and then dwells on his recovery process. On the one hand, this play appears to be a personal chronicle of the playwright’s experience with the Covid-19 virus. On the other hand, Hare’s narration of the news about the virus from the United Kingdom and the world serves to reveal national and collective memory of the crisis. As a playwright who frequently works on political realities and topical issues, Hare intermingles his personal memory and the collective record of the pandemic to censure the leaders incapable of coping with ambiguous circumstances. Thus, his memoir unveils not only Hare’s political commentary but also his political rage as his tone is tinged with anger and disappointment when it comes to the Conservative Party’s failure to protect people against the virus in the country. This paper intervenes in Hare’s monologue play, Beat the Devil, to investigate the playwright’s use of autobiographical and collective memory and evaluates Hare’s expression of political rage in his exploration of the coronavirus.