Waste

<p><i>A scandal half-stifled is worse than a scandal. One is at everybody's mercy.</i> <p/>Backstage at a hung parliament visionary Independent Henry Trebell is co-opted by the Tories to push through a controversial Bill. Pursuing his cause with missionary zeal he's barely distracted by his brief affair with a married woman until she suffers a lethal backstreet abortion. Threatened by public scandal the Establishment closes ranks and coolly seals the fate of an idealistic man. <p/>Famously banned by the censors in 1907 Harley Granville Barker's controversial masterpiece gathers a large ensemble to expose a cut-throat cynical world of sex sleaze and suicide amongst the political elite of Edwardian England. <p/>This edition was published for the National Theatre's revival in November 2015.</p>