From his emergence as a young writer at London's Royal Court Theatre to being hailed as "the greatest living English playwright" (The Independent), this first volume of the notebooks of Edward Bond reveals the mind behind some of the most provoc Exploring the meeting point between politics and the art of the writer, Bond's notes offer a rare insight into one of the theatre's foremost thinkers whilst charting the creative progress of his work between 1959 and 1980. As well as providing a detailed commentary on his plays, the notebooks also contain early play drafts, poems and stories, his thoughts on life, art, Brecht, dramatic method and censorship."1 August 1965: I would do almost anything to prevent my play [Saved] being banned except alter one comma at the request of the Lord Chamberlain."Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

This second volume of Edward Bond's notebooks covers the period from Restoration, his historic drama with songs, to Eleven Vests, his play for young people written for Big Brum Theatre-in-Education "There is a cliche - which is also false - that all creative writing is autobiographical. If I were to be asked when you write do you write about your life I would answer when I write I am living my life."Including first drafts of plays, ideas and thoughts on characters, themes, actions and dramatic technique, this selection of notes provides a glimpse into the working mind of one of the world's most provocative playwrights. Alongside the commentaries on the plays, Bond's notes also contain stories and poems. His philosophy on theatre and art and his views on the role of the writer in society are included. Emphasis is given to Bond's critical response to political and moral issues such as Thatcherism, the monarchy, nuclear war, Britain's social classes and our definitions of good and evil.

Described by its author as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre before members of the English Stage Society in a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby, Saved became a notorious play and a cause celebre. In a letter to the Observer, Sir Laurence Olivier wrote: 'Saved is not a play for children but it is for grown-ups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it.' Saved has had a marked influence on a whole new generation writing in the 1990s. Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

Edward Bond Plays:8 brings together recent work by the writer of the classic stage plays Saved, Lear, The Pope's Wedding, and Early Morning. The volume comprises five new plays and two prose essays: Two Cups: introductory essay Born: the third play in the Colline Tetralogy (the first two of which appear in Edward Bond Plays:7); premiering at the Avignon Festival in July 2006. People: the fourth play in the Colline Tetralogy Chair: first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2000. Existence: first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2002. The Under Room: first staged by Big Brum in October 2005; 'an intricate puzzle that is compelling in both its intellectual and emotional intensity'5 stars (Guardian) Freedom and Drama: an extended disquisition on the relationship of drama to the self and society in which Bond argues that drama alone can create human meaning.

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world's most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: "how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?" The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre's most prolific dramatists.

Restoration is set in eighteenth-century England: a world of cruelty, injustice and iron privilege. Lord Are is forced by poverty into an unwanted marriage with the daughter of a wealthy mineowner. One morning, during breakfast, he commits a bizarre and fatal crime. He seeks to pin responsibility for it on his guileless, illiterate footman, Bob Hedges. A battle ensues between Bob's black, justice-hungry wife and the fortified privilege of the ruling classes. This is a new programme text edition of the play with minor revisions to the original text and produced for the tour by Oxford Staeg Company.

Edward Bond's version of Lear's story embraces myth and reality, war and politics, to reveal the violence endemic in all unjust societies. He exposes corrupted innocence as the core of social morality, and this false morality as a source of the aggressive tension which must ultimately destroy that society. In a play in which blindness becomes a dramatic metaphor for insight, Bond warns that 'it is so easy to subordinate justice to power, but when this happens power takes on the dynamics and dialectics of aggression, and then nothing is really changed'.

One of Britain's greatest living contemporary dramatists, Edward Bond is widely studied by schools and colleges. The collection includes a commentary by the author.

"Restoration towers like a colossus ...its stylistic wit, moral complexity and theatrical force are of the kind one associates with classic drama" (Michael Billington). In settings both historical and modern, Edward Bond's plays continue to offer a wide-ranging political and moral critique of human society and human relationships. The fourth volume of his collected works contains his plays from the late seventies and early eighties.

Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

Described by Edward Bond as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', "Saved "is a play set in London in the sixties and reflects a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre for members of the English Stage Society at a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby in its stroller, " Saved "became a notorious play and a cause celebre. It has since had a profound influence on a whole new generation of writers who emerged in the 1990s.

Commentary and notes by David Davis.

To be sane or not to be sane, that is the question - and if not, then be mad and all that follows. Edward Bond takes from the Greek and Jacobean drama the fundamental classical problems of the family and war to vividly picture our collapsing society. The war is raging, Dea, a heroine, has committed a terrible act and has been exiled. When she meets someone from her past, she is forcefully confronted by the broken society that drove her to commit her crimes. Dea received its world premiere at Sutton Theatre on 24 May 2016.

A Student Edition of Wedekind's classic 1891 expressionist play about adolescent sexuality.Wedekind's notorious play "Spring Awakening "influenced a whole trend of modern drama and remains relevant to today's society, exploring the oppression and rebellion of adolescents among draconian parents and morals. This seminal work looks at the conflict between repressive adulthood and teenage sexual longings in a provincial German town.Highly controversial and with themes of sexuality, social attitudes and adolescence, the play is a popular and provocative text for study, especially at undergraduate level.This translation by Edward Bond first brought the play to English audiences when it premiered at the National Theatre in 1974. Receiving high praise ('scrupulously faithful both to Wedekind's irony and his poetry.' "The Times), "this version is now considered to be the definitive English translation.This Student Edition features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well as a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history.

Over 50 years after his first appearance on the theatre scene, Edward Bond remains a hugely significant figure in the history of modern British playwriting. His plays are the subject of much debate and frequent misinterpretation, with his extensive use of allegory and metaphor to comment on the state of society and humanity in general leading to many academics, theatre practitioners and students trying - and often failing - to make sense of his plays over the years. In this unique collection, David Tuaillon puts these pressing questions and mysteries to Edward Bond himself, provoking answers to some of his most illusive dramatic material, and covering an extraordinary range of plays and subjects with real clarity. With a particular focus on Bond's later plays, about which much less has been written, this book draws together very many questions and issues within a thematic structure, while observing chronology within that."Edward Bond: The Playwright Speaks" is potentially the most comprehensive, precise and clear account of the playwright's work and time in the theatre to date, distilling years and schools of thought into one single volume.Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first performance of Edward Bond's "Saved "at the Royal Court Theatre in 1965.

We watch as advanced beings gather from various planets the finest flowers of the human species and transplant them to the fertile planet Earth. Now the stage is set for the introduction of two young lovers - seedlings, representatives for all of us who are involved in the eternal dance of the life cycle. Act One - We begin their very personal story long ago in Jerusalem, a place and time when the world is determined to test innocence. The boy and girl seem to be caught in a conflict between positive and negative forces that separate them until the 21st century, when boy meets girl again in a new time, place and body. Act Two - In this new time, however, there are new crises and complexities that prevent a renewal of their love. In fact the entire world is in an unbalanced state. Act Three - Much further into the future, when conditions are at last harmonious to the melody of lovers, the circle is closed and these two complete their story. It is at this time too, that the advanced beings come to harvest what they have sown.

Five outstanding plays from the British theatre of the 1960s. This volume contains major works by five of the most important playwrights ot emerge during the late fifties and early sixties. Bold, challenging and iconoclastic, these plays are landmarks of post-war British theatre. Roots by Arnold Wesker focuses on the homecoming of young Beatie Bryant who returns to her family of Norfolk farm workers with stories of her boyfriend Ronnie. Serjeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden is set in a mining town in the 19th century, with a group of soldiers returned from a colonial war. But when Musgrave is asked to keep the peace with the colliery workers, he decides to do so in a rather unusual way. Loot by Joe Orton is a brilliant parody of the skeleton-in-the-cupboard crime genre, exploding the very notions of English decency, good citizenry and traditional 'positions'. Edward Bond's Early Morning re-imagines the time of Victoria and Albert caught up in a military coup plotted by Disraeli. Peter Barnes' Ruling Class describes the fall out in an aristocratic family after the 14th Earl commits suicide and leaves his estate to a schizophrenic Franciscan friar who is under the illusion that he is Jesus.

The latest collection of plays by one of Europe's most important playwrights THE CRIME OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: The past has been abolished and geography - even the sky - is changed. A woman lives in a vast desert of white rubble. A tiny group of people comes seeking a hiding place - and is exposed to the deepest questions of human existence. OLLY'S PRISON: an ordinary city flat. Evening. A man tries to talk to his daughter. She will not answer. Slowly their world turns to tragedy and a search begins that lasts for years. COFFEE: A young man alone in a room. A stranger enters. Together they journey into a dark forest...When the men return to the daylight world, they are involved in a trivial incident. It is hardly more than a gesture - yet it is something that once happened and in its triviality captures the history of our century and confronts us with the deepest questions about ourselves."A great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" - Independent "A play by one of Britain's greatest playwrights is an event" - TES

Two new plays from Britain's most challenging dramatist

Have I None and The Children are both set in a late-21st-century apocalyptic landscape where human behaviour is monitored, living spaces are designated and where any emotional displays are immediately eradicated. In The Children a teenager's unquestioning loyalty to his mother has fatal consequences, while in Have I None a couple's lives are irreversibly changed by the appearance of a disturbing stranger who questions their existence.

Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

An important, urgent book of essays from Britain's most challenging dramatist: "...a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright." (The Independent) This collection of passionate and polemical essays deals with drama from its origin in the human mind to its use in history and the present. It explains the hidden working of drama behind the state, religion, family, crime and war. It is a revolutionary understanding of the human world with drama at its centre. A ruthless critique of the theatre's present state and its trivialisation as entertainment by the media, it reveals and sees a radical new theatre for the future. Edward Bond is internationally recognised as a major playwright and a leading theoretician of drama. He is the most performed British dramatist abroad. This is his latest and most important account of the meaning and practice of theatre as we start a new millennium.

Two plays for young people

In Eleven Vests, one person is involved in two events; one at school, another as a soldier in the army. Although separated by years, the incidents bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. Eleven Vests shows how the adult develops from the younger self and looks at how tragedy escalates from seemingly minor confrontations.
Tuesday: a young girl sits alone in her bedroom studying when her soldier boyfriend returns unexpectedly from active service. In the action that follows she is confronted with a conflict of love and loyalty between him and her father.

Edward Bond "is one of the two or three major playwrights - and arguably the only one - to emerge since the fifties" (Observer)

Plays Six includes some of the most acclaimed work of Edward Bond, one of Britain's greatest living contemporary dramatists, who is widely studied by schools and colleges. The collection includes a commentary by the author. The collection includes The War Plays and Choruses from After the Assasinations. In The War Plays (Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Can People, Great Peace): "Bond particularises daunting themes and subjects, but examines them within the context of every day life. His platform is a trilogy of plays that deal with the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The first, - a quick, telling chronicle of a life destroyed before it ever got lived - puts forth Bond's notions of contemporary cultural corruption and conditioning. In play two the demoralised inheritors of a ravaged earth try to rationalise an existence predicated on death. The third play enlarges the issues by focussing on a post-apocalyptic Mother Courage for whom schizoid suffering becomes a survival technique." (Time Out). In Choruses From After The Assassinations, Bond forecasts questions fifty years into the future, in an age of escalating militarism.Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

One of Britain's greatest living contemporary dramatists, Edward Bond is widely studied by schools and colleges. The collection includes a commentary by the author. The Bundle - "A complex and marvellously written play" (The Times); Jackets - "An astonishingly powerful piece of political, polemic poetry" (Guardian); Human Cannon charts the struggle against Fascism in Spain through the stories of the village community of Estarobon; In the Company of Men, a vivid and coruscating attack on the values encapsulated by boardroom power games, was described by the RSC as "a vast meditation on the twenty-first century."Edward Bond "is one of the two or three major playwrights - and arguably the only one - to emerge since the fifties" (Observer)

"Edward Bond is the most radical playwright to emerge from the sixties ... the most savagely powerful dramatist writing today ... Bond's plays cannot be ignored" (Independent)

Saved - "The most uncompromising, original and un-English English play of the sixties" (Observer); Early Morning - "A gargantuan Swiftian metaphor of universal consumption" (Observer); The Pope's Wedding - "This bizarre and unclassifiable piece is an astonishing tour de force for a first play, and if it comes to that, would be an astonishing tour de force if it were a fifty-first ... Bond is an original" (Bernard Levin, Daily Mail)