Sean Holmes’s production of Edward Bond’s Saved is the first in over a quarter of a century so you’d be forgiven for knowing nothing more about the seminal play than that it was famously banned after its 1965 premiere.
The scene at the centre of the controversy – which led to the Royal Court becoming a private club in order to show it – has lost none of its shock value more than 40 years on, but it would be a mistake to reduce this play to this scene alone. Bond’s play is seminal for a reason, it is a powerful glimpse of humanity at its worst and the really shocking thing is how every scene rings horrifyingly true.
Set in South London, much of Saved takes place in the home of Mary (Susan Brown) and Harry (Michael Feast), a middle-aged married couple who have never talked or acknowledged one another in the whole of their daughter Pam’s existence. When Pam (Lia Saville) picks up the hapless Len (Morgan Watkins), he is taken back to the house for sex and ends up staying for life.
But, as Pam questions in one of the final, most desperate scenes in the play, could you call it a life? It’s more a groundhog day of rows, arguments, seething resentment and violence. With no money, no jobs and no incentive to give anything back to society, Bond paints a bleak picture of working class life.
There are countless scenes that leave you reeling as the dysfunctional family’s apathy towards one another becomes increasingly horrifying. In one, Pam applies a full face of make-up as her new born baby screams itself hoarse, calmly turning up the television to block out the sound. In another, a lost copy of the Radio Times leads to a screaming match so intense that every word pushes Len a fraction closer to throwing a punch as Pam pushes every one of his buttons to the absolute, excruciating limit. All the while Harry stands ironing on the other side of the room, utterly unmoved.
This is one of the many subtleties that Holmes’s direction pinpoints, with each member of the capable cast moving almost painfully silently and slowly until sudden surges of adrenaline cause them to accelerate, words falling out of their mouths at a speed their brains can barely keep up with, allowing the action to spiral out of control before a sudden loaded silent ensues once more.
And of the scene that made Saved a cause célèbre? Bond’s believable dialogue combined with Holmes’s understated direction ensures it is in no way gratuitous. As a pinch turns into a punch, spitting to stoning, it is undeniably difficult to watch but somehow less shocking than Pam’s later apathetic and misguided reaction to her child’s death.
Bond recently claimed that his play’s snapshot of a disillusioned nation could have predicted the recent riots. If David Cameron would like to attend, I’d happily pay for his ticket.
CM