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CHAPTER TWO: WHAT IS A DRAMA EVENT?
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My first significant meeting with Edward Bond’s work was as an actor¬
teacher in Big Brum TIE Company working on The Under Room.’ In this
play, set in 2077, a woman finds an illegal immigrant hiding in her cellar.
She is persuaded to allow him to stay and even tries to help him by finding
a smuggler to take him north. The immigrant is represented by an almost
man-sized doll in the play, the actors talk to this Dummy while its words are
said by the Dummy Actor, who stands at the back of the stage barely moving
through the play. I played the Dummy Actor, a challenge that went against all
my previous acting experiences; I stood in one place through most of the play
and talked. It was a defining experience. Though I had read Bond’s theoretical
writings and plays before, I realised that working on his plays practically is
critical in understanding his theory. Similarly, I understood that it is very
difficult to rehearse his plays without understanding the key concepts and
dramatic devices such as Drama Event (referred to as DE hereafter) defined in
his theoretical writing. The rehearsals of The Under Room were the beginning
of a journey for me that this action research is a significant part of.
Bond defines himself primarily as a dramatist, but the body of work he
has created in the past half-century covers many genres and subjects. In this
chapter I will only look at those aspects of his theory and practice that relate
directly to my research. Within the investigation of his complex theory I will
focus on the Drama Event, as this central concept connects many elements
of his thinking and links up different dramatic devices that Bond refers to.
I personally find the concept of Drama Event useful because it offers a focus
at a moment that can only be created in action within the fictional situation,
but at the same time it relies on underlying dramaturgical structures running
through the play and also an analysis of the content of the fiction. Hence
Drama Events bring together the functions of actor, director and playwright
in their creation; functions that also come together when participants
become ‘makers’ of drama in LTD. As will be clear from this chapter Bond is
227 Edward Bond: The Under Room, in Plays: 8, London, Methuen Drama, 2006, 169-203.
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