The playwright David Hare is a skilled master at unpicking complex topics and bringing the people involved alive, giving the audience an understanding of the dynamics behind these issues.

These include The Power of Yes, which untangled the financial crisis of 2008, and the Absence of War, which observed how the internal workings of the Labour Party leadership contributed to its 1992 election defeat.

In Straight Line Crazy Hare turns his attention to Robert Moses, the unelected urban planner who was the biggest single influence shaping New York from the 1920s to the 1960s.