Edward Bond's version of Lear's story embraces myth and reality, war and politics, to reveal the violence endemic in all unjust societies. He exposes corrupted innocence as the core of social morality, and this false morality as a source of the aggressive tension which must ultimately destroy that society. In a play in which blindness becomes a dramatic metaphor for insight, Bond warns that 'it is so easy to subordinate justice to power, but when this happens power takes on the dynamics and dialectics of aggression, and then nothing is really changed'.

Described by Edward Bond as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties and reflects a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre for members of the English Stage Society at a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby in its stroller, Saved became a notorious play and a cause celebre. It has since had...