Edward Bond is widely regarded as the UK's greatest and most influential playwright. His plays include The Pope's Wedding (Royal Court Theatre, 1962), Saved (Royal Court, 1965), Early Morning (Royal Court, 1968), Lear (Royal Court, 1971), The Sea (Royal Court, 1973), The Fool (Royal Court, 1975), The Woman (National Theatre, 1978), Restoration (Royal Court, 1981) and The War Plays (RSC at the Barbican Pit, 1985).

Described by its author as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties. 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 before members of the English Stage Society in a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby, Saved became a notorious play and a cause célèbre. In a letter to the Observer, Sir Laurence Olivier wrote: 'Saved is not a play for children but it is for grown-ups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it.' Saved has had a marked influence on a whole new generation writing in the 1990s.

Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)