Audible is pleased to announce the upcoming audio release of Beat the Devil, written and performed by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and BAFTA-winning director David Hare (Skylight, The Hours, The Reader). The Audible Original is set to release October 24, 2024, with Audible founder Don Katz serving as executive producer.
Beat the Devil is a raw, powerful first-hand account of contracting Covid-19 in its first wave, told by one of the most decorated artists of our time. On the same day that the UK government finally made the first of two decisive interventions that led to a conspicuously late lock-down, David Hare, celebrated playwright and screenwriter, contracted Covid. Nobody seemed to know much about it then, and many doctors are not altogether sure they know much more today. Suffering a pageant of apparently random symptoms, Hare recalls the delirium of his illness, which mixed with fear, dream, honest medicine and dishonest politics to create a monologue of furious urgency and power.
In August 2020, Beat the Devil’s world premiere production, starring Ralph Fiennes at the Bridge Theatre in London, marked the return of live, socially distanced indoor theater in the West End. In New York, Hare performed the monologue for a two-night engagement at the Public Theater in November 2023. Now, this astute commentary reflecting on an unimaginable time will be accessible direct to listeners’ ears across the globe.
Among his many accolades, David Hare has been called “our best writer of contemporary drama” (Sunday Times) and “Britain’s greatest living playwright” (Mail on Sunday). The Telegraph said that Beat the Devil “flung open the theater doors again with a heart-stopping flourish in David Hare’s most personal piece to date. It reminds us why Hare matters but also why theatre does – as a place to gather together to confront society’s darkest days and demons.”
David Hare said, “In early 2020, there was no prediction of what one day might look like, and how it might differ from the next, when experiencing Covid-19. The best way I knew how to explore this time was to write what became Beat the Devil. When this piece was first performed, it was for a socially distanced audience, and I’m grateful to Audible that this story will now be available to so many more. I hope listeners empathize with the rage and urgency I felt during this harrowing time, and find catharsis in the ultimate recovery.”
Don Katz said, “David Hare created an artful, historically profound monologue that provides a necessary revisit of the societal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. As one of the world’s greatest living playwrights, David brings humor and humanity to a time of tragedy and within the intimate format of an Audible Original, listeners can peer deeply into the human condition. I believe David’s story could heal the broad disassociation left by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially now when we are still feeling the societal effects of that time.”
