David Edgar (playwright)

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David Edgar (b. February 26, 1948) is a British playwright particularly active since the late 1970s. He gained widespread prominence with his two-part adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel Nicholas Nickleby, which played extensively in London and the US, and his play Destiny for which he was awarded the prestigious John Whiting Award in 1975.

His best-known original play is Pentecost, which takes place in Eastern Europe during the early 1990s and concerns the discovery of a mural in a small church. This is the middle play in his trilogy of plays about Eastern Europe, all of which deal with the theme of negotiation - the first, The Shape of the Table was written shortly after the collapse of Communist rule, while the third, The Prisoner's Dilemma, premiered shortly before September 11th.

Other plays include Albert Speer and Playing with Fire, both of which premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2000 and 2005 respectively and deal with overtly political themes. Albert Speer is based on biographies and factual evidence about Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler's Architect, Munitions Minister and friend, and tells the story of his imprisonment, release and personal struggle to overcome his denial of the Holocaust. Playing with Fire deals with the politics of New Labour, multiculturalism and ethnic tensions in the North of England, and has also been adapted for radio.

In 2003 he was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California to write his two-play epic Continental Divide, which is about American politics. It was performed at both theatres with mixed reviews.