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)

The Hidden Plot

by Edward Bond

Published 14 September 2000
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.