Edgar the Playwright

"The best review I've ever had was when Michael Billington said, 'like Balzac, David Edgar seems to be a secretary for our times'...I'd like to be a secretary for the times through which I'm living." (David Edgar)


David Edgar is one of Britain's major political playwrights. He belongs to a generation of dramatists - which includes Howard Brenton, Trevor Griffiths and David Hare - who learned their craft in the Fringe theatres of the late sixties. His best known plays have been written for the Royal National Theatre (including Albert Speer in 2000 and The Shape of the Table) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (Destiny; The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Nicholas Nickleby, Maydays and Pentecost).

In this full-length study of Edgar's work, Susan Painter examines the social, political and theatrical context of Edgar's career in the theatre and provides a detailed analysis of the plays.