Finally, David Hare closes out the season with his 1985 New York success, A Map of the World. It’s hard to believe this play has never been performed on the West Coast, partly because of the positive press it received in both New York and London when it opened, and partly because of its continued relevance.
Set at a UNESCO conference on aid to developing countries, it brings into conflict a brilliant but cynical Indian writer, who scorns the West’s attempts at assistance to his and other countries in the Third World, with an apparently principled but perhaps simplistic young aid worker. However, the conflict goes well beyond the usual debate about wasted resources and corruption into the area where political meets personal - particularly in the desirable form of a young and pliant American woman, who becomes the object of both their attentions. The result is a complex, multi-layered play that satisfies both the intellect and the emotions. And with its international scope, this is just the sort of play TheatreFIRST is reputed for tackling.