After a long period of turmoil, the Leader's office has imposed an uneasy period of calm on the Labour Party. But the leader, George Jones, knows he has only one chance of power. The third part of a trilogy of plays about British institutions, The Absence of War offers an original look at the way modern politicians think and act, as well as a meditation on the classic problems of leadership. Alongside the first two parts of the trilogy, Racing Demon and Murmuring Judges, about the Church and the Law, David Hare has also written Asking Around, a documentary book which supplies the background to the writing of the plays.

After a long period of turmoil, the Leader's office has imposed an uneasy period of calm on the Labour Party. But the leader, George Jones, knows he has only one chance of power. The third part of a trilogy of plays about British institutions, The Absence of War offers an original look at the way modern politicians think and act, as well as a meditation on the classic problems of leadership. Alongside the first two parts of the trilogy, Racing Demon and Murmuring Judges, about the Church and the Law, David Hare has also written Asking Around, a documentary book which supplies the background to the writing of the plays.