The Philanthropist

(, Main)

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Description

When first written in the late 60s, the play proved so out of synch with the spirit of the times that the Royal Court theatre in London hesitated over it for two years. The Philanthropist examines the empty life of a group of college intellectuals. Most memorable is the central character, obviously based on Hampton himself, an anti-hero whose affable nature is as inflammatory to the people around him as is the confrontational malice of Moliere's Le Misanthrope.

Author Bio

Christopher Hampton was born in the Azores in 1946. As a child he travelled around Aden, Egypt and Zanzibar. He was educated at Lancing College and in 1966 he went to New College, Oxford to study German and French, graduating in 1969 with a First Class degree. He wrote his first play, When Did You Last See Your Mother, at the age of eighteen. It was first performed by Oxford undergraduates and subsequently moved to the Royal Court in June 1966. Since then, Christopher Hampton has worked on numerous original plays, adaptations and translations in the theatre, television and cinema.