Trying It On (NHB Modern Plays)

It’s 1968. David is twenty. It is the height of the worldwide student revolt. The Vietnam war rages. Enoch Powell delivers his 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Martin Luther King is assassinated. These events will define David’s politics and give focus to his writing.

It’s fifty years on. The seventy-year-old is confronted by the twenty-year old. Do they share the same beliefs? If not, is it the world that’s changed, or him?

David Edgar's Trying It On is an autobiographical monologue, written to be performed by its author.

It was first presented by Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate, touring the UK in 2018, including performances at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Midlands Arts Centre and at the Royal Court Theatre, London – as well as at the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside the RSC's revival of Edgar's landmark play Maydays.

‘Witty, but never cynical… as charming as it is challenging’ - The Times