Tom Leopold, Stefan Hartman, Don Warfield, Richard Cox.
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| James Woods, Margaret Braidwood. |
One of the grimmest works in years, this intense British drama—laced with enough humor to keep it from being completely depressing—was the first Edward Bond play done in New York. It offered an intimate look at the sordidness and vulgarity of life among a substratum of the working classes.
The feckless Len (James Woods) and Pam (Dorrie Kavanaugh) are young people whose love affair leads to their living together in the home of Pam’s parents—neither of whom has spoken to the other in 20 years. Pam betrays Len with the sexually more appealing Fred (Kevin Conway), by whom she has a baby that Len cares for as his own. In the shocking scene that caused the play to be banned by Britain’s Lord Chamberlain when it was produced by the Royal Court Theatre in 1965, the baby is stoned to death in its carriage by Fred and his pals.
The banning raised such an outcry among artists and intellectuals that it eventually led to abolition of the official British censor, a position dating back hundreds of years. In New York, where no official censor existed, Saved stirred up a great deal of critical approval, both for its powerful substance and its illuminating production. It opened locally after two planned productions elsewhere were cancelled.
Despite its being overlong, and having an anticlimactic resolution following the stoning scene, the play disturbed few critics. Walter Kerr looked askance at it as an example of the condescension of the outsider playwright viewing with contempt the lives of those beneath him, thereby making the characters seem “subhuman.” And Harold Clurman, recognizing Bond’s gifts, asserted, “We have passed the need for this sort of realism. . . . [B]ond’s play commands more respectful assent than artistic enthusiasm.”
More widespread were encomiums such as John Lahr’s, that Saved is “distinguished . . . for the profound, riveting compassion [Bond] finds for the barren, loveless embers of humanity who are his characters.” Clive Barnes raved about this “incandescent first work,” and Martin Gottfried called it “unusually powerful.”
Alan Schneider’s direction scored only a partial triumph, the critics splitting down the middle on its effectiveness. Kevin Conway’s Fred, James Woods’s Len, and Margaret Braidwood’s Pam were exceptional within an otherwise adequate company. Braidwood landed an OBIE for Distinguished Performance, as did Woods, who also received a Vernon Rice Award.
