Scene Thirteen of Bond's Saved

SCENE THIRTEEN OF BOND'S SA'rED IN AN INTERVIEW SOON AFTER THE ORIGINAL PRODUCI'ION OF Saved, Edward Bond stated, "If a problem matters to you, you have a solution or at least you have feelings towards a solution."l In Saved the problem is the survival of hope. The solution, or at least the feeling towards a solution, is suggested by Bond's comment in an author's note on the conclusion of his play, "Clutching at straws is the only realistic thing to do."2 In Scene Thirteen Edward Bond gives his audience the straw to clutch at as he gives it to his characters on the stage. It is a moment of desperate optimism and a mad pantomime of affirmation. Yet Scene Thirteen gives the title of the drama its significance. Without that closing bit of action it would be almost impossible to find out who or even what is saved. Indeed, it is difficult to do so given Scene Thirteen. Yet in that scene all the individual actions-coming after the horror of the murder of the baby-do have something in common: all of them are vaguely positive. Pam-assuming the activity is positive-is simply reading. While that may not be much, it is at least a first effort at those "straws." Mary, as the stage directions note, is picking up after the meal: Mary takes things from the table and goes out. Later, She wipes the table top with a damp cloth. Keeping herself orderly, She takes off her apron and folds it neatly. These female actions, which in Mary seem to be almost ritualistic, are barely enough to suggest that the world imaged on the stage has not disintegrated. Yet, they serve to introduce us to the positive activities of the men on stage. While none of the actions can be termed optimistic in the conventional sense of the word-neither those of the men nor those of the women-that is all that Bond allows his audience. In the dramatic world of Saved, the positive and meager action of the closing scene imitates the fact of a meager salvation. The simple actions of Pam and Mary take on a greater significance in the silent movements of Harry. He comes in, searches through a drawer, finds ink and an envelope, takes out his pen and: He starts to fill in his football coupon. Throughout the scene Harry fills out the form, then stamps the envelope, then, in the last action before the 1 Statement by Edward Bond in an interview with Giles Gordon, TransatlanUc Review, 22 (1966),9. ' 2 Edward Bond, Saved (New York, 1966), p. 5. All citations in my text are from this edition. 147 148 MODERN DRAMA September curtain falls, Harry licks the flap on the envelope and closes it quietly. Harry's activity is one way in which Bond suggests -the rather dismal sa~vation offered. It is the next step from the actions of the womC;!n. 'What could be more desperate and futile than a gamble on a football coupon? At the sam.e th11e what could be more hopeful or wishful? It is the survival of such desperate hope that allows the odd family collected on stage at the end of the play to ~urvive itself. Most positive, though also trivial, is the central action of the closing scene: Len's repairing of a chair broken by Harry. As the scene progresses, the audience is suddenly struck by a sharp bang off stage. Perhaps it is a pistol shot, the antithesis of the salvation proposed by the dramatist. But no one on stage reacts. Then another follows and Len· carries in the broken chair. On stage the chair and Len become the obvious focus of the audience's attention. Like everyone else in Scene Thirteen Len seems to be acting out a kind of positive ritual. He crouches, he 'looks under the chair, he inverts it, he tries the loose leg. In fact, Len seems almost to embrace it: He rests his left wrist high on the chair back and his right elbow .in the chair seat. His right hand hangs in space. His...