Edward Bond: a Political Education

Edward Bond and the Celebrity of Exile

“…While its British premiere was described by Ruby Cohn as 'too long to sustain a drama', 39 Michael Mangan comments, 'In France it was described as the most important play written since the Second World War'. 40 Similarly, In the Company of Men, dismissed by Anthony Jenkins when it was first presented in this country as 'a rambling, self-indulgent account of post-modern society', 41 was a critical and commercial success in France, culminating in the play currently being adapted for a film project in a pseudo-documentary style, similar to Al Pacino's exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III in Looking for Richard (1996). Although Brian Logan sees the success in France as 'part of the Bond myth', 42 such is the appetite for his work there, that even a play such as Existence (2002), which was originally written for medium of wireless, was performed in the same year as a stage play in Paris.…”