SOURCE: “A Small Party,” in New Statesman & Society, October 8, 1993, pp. 28-9.

In the following review, Milne views The Absence of War as less interesting than the earlier two plays in Hare's trilogy.

Once upon a time, there was a Labour leader who lost. He had one chance to win an election, and he lost. In private, this leader was warm and witty, a man of culture and integrity. In public, he was a windbag with a shaky grasp of policy. TV interviewers tripped him up. Shadow cabinet colleagues put him down. Rumour had it that he wasn’t up to the job.

Staff in the leader’s private office shielded, chivvied and cosseted him. They lived in a state of perpetual vigilance, poised to preempt potential gaffes. The man who should have been his party’s greatest asset was treated as its greatest liability.

Old hands have rushed...