BIOGRAPHY
Edward Bond
Playwright Edward Bond (Olly's Prison) was born on July 18, 1934, in Holloway, a working class suburb in North London. As a child during World War II he was evacuated to the countryside, where his exposure to the violence and terror of war shaped themes in his work. At fifteen he left school and worked in a series of factories and offices, followed by two years in the British army. His first play, Saved, was produced by the Royal Court in 1965 and led to the eventual abolishment of theater censorship. His other plays include Early Morning, Lear, The Sea, Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death, The Fool: Scenes of Bread and Love, The Bundle: New Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Woman, Restoration, The War Plays, Jackets, In the Company of Men, Coffee, Eleven Vests, and Crime of the Twenty-First Century. His screenplays include Laughter in the Dark (1969), Walkabout (1971), and he collaborated on Blowup (1966, Academy Award, Best Original Screenplay) and Days of Fury (1973). Olly's Prison was written as a teleplay for the BBC in 1993 and has been performed as a stage play at the Avignon Festival and the Berliner Ensemble. In 2006 the Avignon Festival will present a series of his work. He currently lives in (the other) Cambridge.