Edgar Plays: 3: Teendreams; Our Own People; That Summer and Maydays

Description

"David Edgar, like Balzac, seems to be the secretary for our times." - The Guardian This third collection of plays by David Edgar includes Our Own People, Teendreams, Maydays and That Summer, encompassing some of his best work from the late 1970s and early 80s, and demonstrating the range of one of Britain's major political playwrights. 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)

David Edgar is a British playwright and journalist, whose works are known for their strong political content. Edgar began to write in the wake of the student rebellions of 1968. His reputation was established when Destiny (1976), which examines racist and fascist elements in British culture, was performed in a production by the RSC. His other works include Wreckers (1977), Mary Barnes (1977), The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1978), Maydays (1983), That Summer (1987), The Shape of the Table (1990), The Prisoner's Dilemma (2002), Albert Speer (1999), Continental Divide (2003), Playing With Fire (2005), and Testing the Echo (2008). Edgar has also been involved with community theatre projects, most notably A Time to Keep (2007), co-written with Stephanie Dale for community actors in Dorchester.