SOURCE: “Tradition,” in North American Review, Vol. 282, No. 6, November-December, 1997, pp. 45-8.

In the following review, King offers a positive assessment of Amy's View.

The title character of David Hare’s latest play, Amy’s View, is the daughter of Esme Allen, a woman whose successful acting career has peaked when the London theater no longer offers actresses continuing, fulfilling work. Dominic is Amy’s lover in Act I (1979), husband in II (1985), betrayer in III (1993), and widower in IV (1995). He is a product and purveyor of popular culture, and by the play’s end he has directed a very successful, very violent film. In death, Amy remains a barrier between Dominic and Esme, neither of whom saw worth in the other’s work and could not subscribe to Amy’s view that loving people without question is the fundamental human value.

Over the play’s sixteen years, Dominic’s...