His early plays – Don't Destroy Me (1956), Yes And After (1957) – reflected the influence of the Angry Young Men movement and his brief involvement with the circle surrounding Colin Wilson.
Hastings also wrote two libretti for Michael Nyman: Man and Boy: Dada (2003, assisted by Victoria Hardie) and Love Counts (2005).
[1] Hastings' 1950s play The Cutting of the Cloth saw its world premiere at the Southwark Playhouse in London, from 11 March till 4 April 2015.
The cast were Alexis Caley, Andy de la Tour, James El-Sharawy, Paul Rider and Abigail Thaw, directed by Tricia Thorns.
As a poet, he published one collection, Love Me, Lambeth, and Other Poems, in 1961, and his work appeared in Michael Horovitz's 1969 anthology Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain.