Violence Resonates in Revival of ‘Saved’

While relatively obscure in this country, Edward Bond’s “Saved” is notorious in England for a first-act scene in which a gang of lower-class London thugs commit a crime so horrific it nearly got the play banned in 1965. As a brutally effective Evidence Room revival attests, the intervening decades haven’t blunted its revulsion factor.

But neither have they diminished the undeniable resonance and artistic impact in Bond’s unsentimental, sharp-eyed portrait of the urban hopelessness that spawns such acts of meaningless cruelty. The drama’s only moral compass is supplied by Len (Christian Leffler), a good-natured young man who moves in with the family of his unfailingly selfish girlfriend, Pam (Ames Ingham, who also directs), and stays there even after she dumps him for an aggressive sociopath (Nick Offerman) who couldn’t care less about her.

While the controversial violent scene overshadows the rest of the play, the skill with which these performers render the many subtleties in Bond’s deceptively sparse dialogue impresses throughout. In equally accomplished characterizations, Pamela Gordon and Don Oscar Smith depict Pam’s parents, putting Len through sardonic variations on the Oedipus myth, and coexisting in a cesspool of mutual loathing in which their only satisfaction is that each is driving the other crazy. Despite these losers’ atrocious behavior, Len’s steadfastly loyal if ineffectual willingness to help them is, Bond asserts, grounds for a sliver of optimism.

Clearly, the author’s intention is not to celebrate violence, but to make a point, and this production viscerally delivers. Terrible deeds are hardly new in the theater. However, even the bloodiest Greek tragedies were always associated with the extremes of human experience. Where “Saved” stumbles is in marketing its horrors as commonplace--just because events could have been taken from the headlines does not mean they happen to everyone.

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* “Saved,” Evidence Room, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 26. $15-$20. (213) 381-7118. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.