David Edgar

Two linked plays - Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution - by the UK's leading political playwright, investigating the machinations of the Democratic and Republican parties in America. In this two-play cycle set against the background of a bitterly fought American governor's election, David Edgar explores what has happened to the revolutionary fervour which took hold of both the Right and the Left in the 1960s, and how it has been carried over into the politics of today. The plays were jointly commissioned and produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They were first performed in Ashland, Oregon, as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in March 2003 before transferring to Berkeley Repertory Theatre in November 2003. Continental Divide received its UK premiere at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March 2004. It subsequently played at the Barbican, London, as part of the BITE Festival, in March 2004.

The third in David Edgar's post-Cold War trilogy, which also includes Pentecost and The Shape of the Table. An urgently topical account of a bloody conflict on Europe's Eastern borders. Beginning in early 1989 and spanning some twelve years, the play follows a team of peace negotiators attempting to resolve an ethnic conflict occurring within a fictional former Soviet republic. The Prisoner's Dilemma was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in July 2001, transferring to the Pit Theatre, Barbican, London, in January 2002.

Starting with international peace brokers playing simulation games on a university campus, David Edgar's intensely political play spirals upwards and outward to present a situation of real conflict over bloodily unresolvable life-and-death issues.

The significance of the Epistle of James within early Christianity, when not neglected, has been disputed. In recent years the letter, and its author, have received renewed attention, and this contribution to the revival examines the way in which the author and his addressees are depicted within the social world of emerging Christianity. Edgar finds strong points of contact with the sayings of Jesus and with early Christian itinerant proclaimers, who are often seen as having been active in preserving and transmitting these sayings. The Epistle challenges the shaky commitment of its readers to their new allegiance, and, in the light of the coming of Gods eschatological ruoe, employs the model of patronage to lay out the choice between loyalty to God and identification with the earthly value system dominated by the rich.

A panoramic historical drama about the man whose devotion to Hitler blinded him to the worst crime of the twentieth century, drawing closely on Gita Sereny's definitive and magisterial biography of Albert Speer. Plucked from obscurity to be Hitler's architect and Minister of War, Albert Speer became the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany and the closest Hitler had to a friend. Having narrowly escaped hanging at Nuremberg, Speer emerged from twenty years at Spandau gaol, as he thought, a changed man. But even as he publishes his bestselling accounts of the Third Reich, the extent of his complicity in Nazi crimes returns to haunt him – and his long-suffering family. David Edgar's play Albert Speer was first performed in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre, London, in May 2000.

This volume contains the best of David Edgar's work from the seventies The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs is an adaptation of the famous South African writer's diaries and deals with solitary confinement and loneliness - "a remarkable, persuasive picture." (Observer); Mary Barnes is based in a commune in the sixties and focuses on schizophrenia "promulgating the theory that schizophrenia can be effectively treated through behaviourist methods alone"; Saigon Rose tackles venereal disease and is "intriguing and entertaining...Edgar handles his themes - loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal - in a bitty, playful style laced with black comedy" (Independent); Oh Fair Jerusalem deals with the black death and Destiny deals with the loss of Empire and the rise of fascism in contemporary Britain "A play which astonished me with its intelligence, density, sympathy and finely controlled anger." Dennis Potter (Sunday Times).

A valuable fresco is discovered in a church in war-torn Eastern Europe. As international and local art historians argue over who should claim ownership, the fate of the painting becomes a metaphor for the future of the emergent nations of Eastern Europe. David Edgar's play Pentecost was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in October 1994. The production transferred to the Young Vic, London, with performances from 31 May 1995. It went on to win the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Play. Pentecost is part of David Edgar's trilogy of plays about post-Communist Eastern Europe, which also includes The Prisoner's Dilemma and The Shape of the Table.

"David Edgar, like Balzac, seems to be the secretary for our times" (Guardian) Our Own People: "A courageous and intelligent discussion of race and industrial relations" (City Limits); Teendreams (written with Susan Todd of Monstrous Regiment theatre company) is about the failed revolutionary dreams of a set of teenagers. Maydays compares the phenomenon of post-war social rebellion from Western and Eastern perspectives; That Summer is an "elegantly tangential treatment of the 1984 miners' strike" (Plays and Players) "Edgar never lets his drama simplify into ideological diagram...This elegant, humane play keeps its emphasis on the...results that can ensue when diverse lives briefly brush against each other." (Independent)

1989. An Eastern Bloc government on the brink of collapse. As the old regime retreats, former political prisoners join banned writers around the negotiating table... The Shape of the Table is part of David Edgar's post-Cold War trilogy of plays, which also includes Pentecost and The Prisoner's Dilemma. Witty and informative, this play is both an intensely topical account of what actually went on in the corridors of power and a timeless analysis of revolution in action. In particular the play explores not only the challenge of seizing power, but also the difficulty of relinquishing it. The Shape of the Table was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1990.

"David Edgar, like Balzac, seems to be the secretary for our times" (Guardian) Nicholas Nickleby: "With uncommon audacity Nicholas Nickleby not only takes on Dickens' sprawling novel, it fractures all the petty limitations we have imposed upon the stage as well...A landmark" (New Statesman); In Entertaining Strangers, a community constructs a nativity play: "English left-wing social drama at its sturdiest and finest: human, argumentative, utterly unafraid of human realities, and seething with indignation and compassion" (Sunday Times) and Ecclesiastes, a radio play that looks at the rise and fall of a "fundamentalist" Christian clergyman in the US.