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In Via Dolorosa, a monologue about the Middle East, Hare poses the question: 'Must our lives in the West necessarily be shallower than those of people for whom the stakes are so much higher?' In November of 1997 Hare travelled to Israel and Palestine - landing in Tel Aviv, he visited Ramallah, Jaffa, the Sheri Tikva Israeli settlement, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It was hoped that Hare would become one of three playwrights - one British, one Israeli and one Palestinian - to write plays about the period of the British Mandate in the 1930s and 1940s, as part of a Royal Court project but upon his return he wrote a monologue about his experiences instead. He performed the resulting piece, Via Dolorosa, the following year at the Royal Court exploring not only the landscapes, ideologies and emotions of the region, but his own values and beliefs and those of Western civilization. Via Dolorosa is part of a series of play readings, workshops and talks that comprise The David Hare Season at Sheffield Theatres.