In a review of The Secret Rapture in American Theatre magazine, prominent London theatre critic Matt Wolf declared that the play was "directly inspired by the decade-old economic and moral climate of Margaret Thatcher's Britain." Though Hare's intimate family drama draws much of its power and appeal from its complex characters and ultimately tragic plot, Wolf's point is well made. The 1980s, both in David Hare's Britain and in the United States, are now viewed as a period of greed, conservative politics, and negligent middle-class social policies, and The Secret Rapture reflects this environment.

There are many similarities between the economic and social development of America and Britain during the 1980s. Both countries elected conservative leaders who believed in strong religious and national values and who opposed high taxes, high government spending, and too much control of private enterprise. In short, they believed that people would...