Análise da Peça "Saved", de Edward Bond

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS

MOVIMENTOS DO TEATRO

Prof. Dra. Mayumi Ilari

Analysis of the play Saved by Edward Bond

Nome: Sabrina Palladino Simas

SÃO PAULO

2015

Analysis of the play Saved by Edward Bond

The play Saved, written by Edward Bond, was presented for the first time on November 3, 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre, London. It shocked the audience because of its themes, mainly the uncensored violence.

Its plot tells about a young man, Len, who is in love with a girl, Pam, who loves another man and gives birth to his unwanted child. He lives as lodger at her house and, in addition to be ignored by her, he witnesses her father and mother tearing each one apart.

It is important to point out that the main themes of the play include sex, excessive freedom that leads to a passiveness of their condition, violence and the tensions of people’s lives that leads to such violence. The play can also be a critique of capitalism that emerged after war: the poor are neglected by capitalism – poor people here is represented by the weak and passive figure of the baby.

Death of a child, or parent killing its child, is a recurrent theme in literature as well as in theater. The issue in Saved is that there is no explanation to this act of cruelty, there is just the unjustified violence. However, the baby was the only one that was “saved” from his fate, fate meaning the lack of action against all the tensions and being a victim of the system freedom.

From all the characters, Len seems to be the one that still has some kind of humanity and reaction against what happens, but even after questioning about what is happening (for example, when the baby is crying), he is unable to act to change the events.

Violence was not the only thing that shocked audience. The eroticized scenes of the play also served to cause the impact at that time. The scene where Pam and Len are having sex even with her father in the house, or even the scene where Pam's mother pantyhose is shredding and Len lowers himself and cut loose thread with his teeth. Freedom in this piece is also linked with the role of sex in their lives, which turns out in an uncensored form, as well as violence.

As stated earlier, the play also highlights the lack of action. A key feature of modern drama is the dialogue, as exposes Szondi (2001, p. 34):

 (…) a totalidade do drama é de origem dialética. Ela não se desenvolve graças à intervenção do eu-épico na obra, mas mediante a superação, sempre efetivada e sempre novamente destruída, da dialética intersubjetiva, que no diálogo se torna linguagem. Portanto, também nesse último aspecto o diálogo é o suporte do drama. Da possibilidade do diálogo depende a possibilidade do drama.

Through the dialogues, the actions, then, are developed. In the play Saved, however, the dialogues are empty and this leads to a lack of action by the characters. Also according to SZONDI (2001), after going through a crisis in the nineteenth century, the pure dramatic style experienced a transition, which broke with his traditional form and now contains elements of other forms of theater.

Moreover, the Drama "solution attempts" according to SZONDI (2001) was the dramatic expressionism current in which a major feature is the isolated from the world and emptied "Ego", which can be noticed in this play by Edward Bond.

Pam is the main character in the play, which shows herself alienated from the whole situation she lives and does nothing to change it. The only thing she shows some interest - besides her beloved Fred -, shown almost imperceptibly, is the “famous world”, as she is always watching television programs or reading magazines on this issues and gets dressed like the stars. Perhaps her greatest desire is to be part of that world. In relation to the "real" world, she shows no interest in being part of it: she does not have a job, does not care about the child or any person other than herself and her love for Fred. She, then, is an example of emptied and isolated character. About emptying, Rosenfeld (. 1985, p 78) further explains:

A experiência de um mundo absurdo leva muitas vezes à redução da imagem do homem que se torna grotesca, particularmente quando é oposta à imagem sublime do herói clássico.

In this sense, not only the character Pam, but also all the others except Len, are shown in the most grotesque way as possible.

Some technical aspects of the play can be described as characteristic of the epic genre. Rosenfeld (1985, p.16) explains that the concept of the theory of three genres (dramatic, epic and lyrical) is somewhat artificial:

[A teoria] Estabelece um esquema a que a realidade literária multiforme, na sua grande variedade histórica, nem sempre corresponde. Tampouco deve ela ser entendida como um sistema de normas a que os autores teriam de ajustar a sua atividade a fim de produzirem obras líricas puras, obras épicas puras ou obras dramáticas puras. A pureza em matéria de literatura não é necessariamente um valor positivo. Ademais, não existe pureza de gêneros em sentido absoluto.

The play discussed herein is not, then, a pure dramatic form as it shows some epic genre features, for example the Time. The play Time develops as chapters of a novel, each chapter representing a Time advance over the previous. We can say that the play Time represents some years including Pam's relationship with Len, then her passion with Fred and hence the birth of the baby, then the baby's death, Fred's and his friends arresting, his release, Pam accepting Fred does not love her, the fight between the Pam’s parents, and finally the end where everything remains the same as in the beginning.