SOURCE: “Pastoral Problems,” in Times Literary Supplement, February 16, 1990, p. 172.

In the following review, Hebblethwaite offers a positive assessment of Racing Demon.

God is not mocked, but the Church of England very frequently is. Its demise has often been confidently predicted. David Hare’s play [Racing Demon] presents an inner-city team ministry, across from Westminster, in a way that manages to be compassionate, unsparing and very funny.

This is where the real pastoral work is done. But if the idea is to fill the churches, it doesn’t succeed. Less than 1 per cent of Anglicans attend church on Sundays. The Reverend Lionel Espy, leader of the team, has the kind of resigned cheerfulness often found in such men. The silence of God begins to get him down. He defines a good priest as someone capable of soaking up anger without hitting back: the vicar as punch-bag. He doesn’t...