A Night in with Ethan Hawke

In a broadcast talk, the actor and writer shares his latest novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness: a meditation on fame and celebrity, and the healing power of art.

Four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke discusses and reads from his latest work as an author, and the first for almost 20 years.

The novel’s narrator is a young man making his Broadway debut just as his marriage implodes.

Through the wreckage, torment and whisky that follows, it’s the theatre that saves him, in particular, the challenges of performing Shakespeare and the leadership of a brilliant director.

Hawke shares his insights into this world, not only as a novelist but as an actor, writer and director for stage and screen.

A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel full of rage and sex, longing and despair.

It is also a passionate love letter to the world of theatre, written by a truly multidisciplinary artist.

Hawke is in conversation with acclaimed author, critic and former literary editor of the Times, Erica Wagner.

This event is pre-recorded exclusively for the Southbank Centre.

Presented in partnership with Penguin Live.