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CHAPTER TWO: WHAT IS A DRAMA EVENT? ———<~o»—___ My first significant meeting with Edward Bond’s work was as an actorteacher 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. +69 +
