'Political Commitment and Performative Practice 'Anybody who used to call themselves a Marxist now has fairly intense self-definitional problems'.- David Edgar (1994) 'He is an optimist who has
been around'. - John Peters (1994BIB-174) Of the distinctivevoices in the contemporary British theatre, David Edgar's provides the most comprehensive articulation of major political questions.
His career spans more than four eventful and politically complex decades, and encompasses every variety of writing for performance including agitprop and touring pieces; community plays; radio,
film and television plays; and large-scale plays produced in the major national venues such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In addition, Edgar has maintained a high
profile as a public intellectual, engaging in depth with a wide variety of political issues through newspaper opinion pages, journal essays, and book reviews, as well as via frequent public
speaking engagements before a variety of organizations including the Commission on Racial Equality; the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce; the Fabian Society; and the annual
Marxism conference'--
