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Edward Bond

Bond, Thomas Edward (1934-), Playwright

Thomas Edward Bond (known as Edward Bond) was born in Holloway, London on 18 July 1934. His father worked as a labourer. As a child, Bond experienced the air raids and bombings of London during World War 2. Consequently, in 1940 he was evacuated to Cornwall and then later to his grandparents in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He returned home to London in 1944 and studied at Crouch End Secondary Modern School. His primary school education had been incomplete and he was not allowed to sit the 11+. In 1948, at the age of 14, Bond went on a school trip to see to the Cambridge theatre in Camden’s production of ‘Macbeth’, starring Donald Wolfit. This was a very influential performance for Bond and sparked his interest in theatre. He left school at 15 but independently read copiously; Bond considers himself largely self-educated. From 1953-55 he undertook his National Service, which included serving in Vienna. By this time he had begun writing. Bond’s intention was to write with ‘honesty’ about ‘the problems of being a human being’.

In 1958 Bond submitted two plays to the English Stage Company (ESC) based at the Royal Court Theatre (RC) and as a result, was asked to join the company’s writers’ group. The group was set up in 1958 and offered weekly teaching sessions led by the directors, for writers working with the ESC. Bond made his debut with his play ‘The Pope’s Wedding’, staged at the RC in 1962. He worked with the ESC’s Artistic Director, George Devine, for this production and Devine subsequently commissioned Bond’s second play, ‘Saved’.

William Gaskill succeeded Devine as Director and planned to stage ‘Saved’ in 1965. The ESC anticipated that Lord Chamberlain would object to the play’s extreme use of language, violence and sexuality. Accordingly, Lord Chamberlain’s office returned the script to the ESC with over thirty cuts and requested the removal of a scene featuring a baby being stoned to death. Both Bond and Gaskill were unwilling to compromise the play and so Gaskill decided to turn the RC into a ‘club theatre’ in order to stage the play without its licence. The opening night, on 3 November 1965, incited outrage and shock in the audience and critics.

In January 1966 the ESC’s Director, Secretary and Licensee were summoned to Marlborough Magistrates Court for showing an unlicensed play. The prosecution argued that members of the public has been admitted to the performance without having to provide proof that they were club members, undermining the ESC’s claims that it had been a private performance. In March 1966 it was ruled that the play had been in violation of the 1843 Theatres’ Act, which gave Lord Chamberlain’s office the power to censor new plays, and the ESC were fined. Nevertheless, the predicament posed by ‘Saved’ attracted significant attention to the action of Lord Chamberlain’s office and was thus fundamental in the eventual repeal of the Theatres’ Act 1843 in 1968.

Bond’s ‘Early Morning’, which scrutinises royalty in Victorian England, was banned in its entirety in November 1967.  Significantly, however, it was the last play to be banned by Lord Chamberlain’s office. ‘Early Morning’ was eventually performed once in March 1968, causing members of the ESC to be questioned by police and threatened with prosecution. A second performance was given under the guise of a dress rehearsal with no ticket costs in April. The Theatres Bill soon followed on 28 September 1968, removing Lord Chamberlain’s jurisdiction to censor plays.

Following the Theatres Act 1968, Bond’s plays could be legally shown. The ESC celebrated this and held an ‘Edward Bond season’ at the Royal Court in 1969, staging a trilogy of his plays: ‘Saved’, ‘Narrow Road to the Deep North’ and ‘Early Morning’. In the same year the three plays also toured Europe to great success, with ‘Saved’ in particular gaining international recognition. During this period Bond and the ESC had shared a mutually beneficial working relationship, united in battling censorship and supporting Bond’s plays.

Nonetheless, Bond’s association with the ESC was not always harmonious. In the 1970s Bond pursued the directing of his own plays and this contributed to growing disunity between him and the ESC. He clashed with the directors over issues of control and practicality. By 1975 none of Bond’s new plays were being shown at the Royal Court.  Bond’s working relationships with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre were also discordant throughout the 1980s. This contributed to Bond’s plays being shown significantly less in English theatres or premiering in London in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Bond continued writing plays staged abroad and he was particularly popular in France. He enjoyed a successful partnership with the French Director, Alain Françon, who staged several of Bond’s plays at Théâtre National De La Colline in Paris, which Françon ran from 1997-2010.

1995 saw Bond begin working with Big Brum, a Theatre in Education Company based in Birmingham. He became an Associate Artist for this charity and wrote several plays to be performed in schools and theatres. Bond is still very active with Big Brum and last contributed a play, ‘Angry Roads’ in 2014.

Bond’s impact on contemporary theatre has been major. He has written over 50 plays to date. However, he has also written non-dramatic works. Bond wrote a variety of short stories and poetry in the 1970s and 1980s and has recent poetry published on his website. In the mid-late 1960s he worked on the screen plays for films ‘Blow Up’, ‘Michael Kolhaas’, ‘Laughter in the Dark’, ‘Walkabout’ and ‘Nicholas and Alexandra’. Bond translated the Frank Wedekind’s play, ‘Spring Awakening’, from German and wrote an introduction for it in 1974. Bond frequently used the prefaces of his plays to set out his influential Drama Theory. Recent essays on Drama can also be found on his website.