From 1968 to 1970, Hampton worked as the Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre, and also as the company's literary manager. He continued to write plays: "Total Eclipse", about the French poets and lovers Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, was first performed in 1967 and at the Royal Court in 1968, but it was not well received at the time. "The Philanthropist" (1970) is set in an English university town and was influenced by Molière's "The Misanthrope". The Royal Court delayed a staging for two years because of an uncertainty over its prospects, but their production was one of the Royal Court's more successful works up to that point. The production transferred to the Mayfair Theatre in London's West End and ran for nearly four years, winning the "Evening Standard" Theatre Award for Best Comedy. It reached Broadway in New York City in 1971.