A man on the North Wall stage introduces us to himself twice: once as he is now and once as he was in his twenties; once in real flesh and blood, and once as a voice in an old cassette tape recorder. In both guises he is David Edgar, the well-known and highly respected author of over 60 performed plays, a man from a theatrical family who once as a child had his own little theatre in the back garden. But we are not concerned about his early middle-class upbringing, but rather about his angry-young-man phase, and what he thinks of it now. He is 71 and lived through the Sixties, can remember enough of it to share some with us: he is one who came of age between “Love Me Do” and “Let It Be”.This is Trying It On.
The set is cluttered with filing cabinets, desk lamps, and stacked cardboard boxes, some of which become screens for what is a one-man audio-visual history of left wing thinking of the last 50 years. He has pictures of
Yes, he was there in ‘68, but did he really take part, or was he play-acting until it was time for him to become a famous and successful playwright? It’s a well-written and polished reflection piece, which would be worth studying more carefully. There were copies of the script on sale at the bar, so perhaps I should have bought one.
His stage manager, Danielle Phillips, shares the stage with David, helping him with the presentation, which he reads from the autocue playing at the back. He’s a brilliant writer, but he’s not much of a performer. But it’s ok; he’s earned the right to have his soul bared and his contribution weighed. Most of the audience were boomers: they understood.