SAVED Lyric, Hammersmith

Edward Bond these days is more likely to be staged in Europe than in Britain. Saved, which premiered at the Royal Court in 1965, is remembered for a baby in a pram being stoned to death by some youths. The Lord Chamberlain, in his role of stage censor, was appalled; not only by this notorious scene but also by the language and obscene actions throughout. He banned the play and the Royal Court had to turn itself into a club theatre in order to circumvent the ban. Bond blames the violence on capitalism and in his off-putting introduction to the script explains that “the young people murder the baby in the park to regain their self respect.” If you do not understand that (he says, rising hackles even more) you do not understand the times you live in. There are convincing performances in Sean Holmes’s Brechtian production by Lia Saville as the grating mother, Calum Callaghan as the brutal father, Susan Brown and Michael Feast as her dysfunctional parents, all indifferent to the fate of the baby, and by Morgan Williams as the weak youngster who is the only character to show any compassion.