''Gethsemane'' is a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

by David Hare. It premièred at the National Theatre in London on 4 November 2008. The work opens with a reflection on the sway religious books hold over their adherents, but it soon establishes itself as a political piece dramatising the methods used by the governing Labour Party in Britain to raise party funds. Using lapses in the personal and public lives of the characters, often easily recognisable as incidents drawn from the lives of real politicians recently departed from office, the play illuminates the cynicism and expediency of a political party too long unchallenged in power. The title '' Gethsemane'' refers to the life-changing decision by the character "Lori" to give up teaching and become a busker. Only later in the play, as other less idealistic characters avoid their own "Gethsemane moments", is it explained to her that in the

Garden of Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great reson ...

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

's decision was to stick with the plan and not to take the easy path.

References

2008 plays Plays by David Hare Plays set in England Gethsemane {{2000s-play-stub