Perhaps because Hare is looking at subjects new to his repertoire [in A Map of the World], its ideas are rather disparate: he seems to be talking about Third World Funding, Zionism, How We Argue, The distorting Power of Fiction/Reporting and Sexual Rivalry—all at once. These ideas may be spread thin in the course of the play, but it does not make them any less stimulating and forceful; also, while he seems to be moving away from outright criticism of British institutions and mores, there is a great deal of muck thrown at British arrogance and its dictatorial attitude to the Third World. To contrast this English rejection of the Third World, Hare offers a spark of hope; the strength of utopianism in a world still finding its feet….

A Map of the World marks a change in Hare's work not only for the move from...