"I'm just a pen": Travel, Performance, and Orientalism in David Hare's Via Dolorosa and Acting Up

Eitan Bar-Yosef's essay explores the affinity between theatrical performance, travel, and textual production by juxtaposing David Hare's "Via Dolorosa" (his one-man show in which he described his experiences visiting Israel / Palestine in 1997) and "Acting Up" (a diary in which he described his experiences performing "Via Dolorosa"). Tracing the playwright's various journeys-from the West End to the West Bank, from behind the scenes to the limelight, from London to Broadway-the essay demonstrates that although Hare's work is indebted to the British Orientalist tradition, his monologue reflects an inability to face the legacy of British colonial rule in Palestine. Ironically, it is precisely Hare's new experiences as a performer, on and off the stage, that echo-very often to the point of parody-this repressed colonial narrative.