Edward Bond’s The War Plays: A Dystopian Reaction to Real-Life Violence

<p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Being known as one of the prominent figures of political theatre in England, <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Edward Bond reacted against the sources of ongoing political and social <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">problems in his plays. According to Bond, the major nuisance was violence <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">among people which was an outcome of the capitalist social structure. The <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Western society in the 21st century, especially after the Second World War, <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">was highly shaped by capitalism, consumerism, and therefore, struggles <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">between the working class and the upper classes. Bond believed that the <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">structure of violence has changed together with the emergence of this new <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">“irrational” social organisation in which the gap between social classes has <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">widened in accordance with the growing demands of capitalism and <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">consumerism. As technology has been improved to meet the demands of this <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">society, the means and the scale of violence have changed, too. The <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">individual has become helpless against the continuing and growing violence. <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">In his dystopian trilogy, The War Plays, Bond portrayed how dangerous <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">capitalism and consumerism could be at the highest level for the individual. <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Being set in a nuclear war period, the first play of the trilogy, Red, Black and <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Ignorant, demonstrates the corruptness of the capitalist society and the <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">vulnerable position of the individual in it while the other two plays, The Tin <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">Can People and Great Peace illustrate a nuclear holocaust. Bond’s trilogy <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal;">presents social and political criticism in the form of dystopia, a genre that is <p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-width: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: norma