Saved

Banned by the censor for its scenes of violence, Saved was initially presented as a ‘private’ performance for members of the English Stage Society. Its now notorious scene, where a teenage gang stone a baby in a pram, caused mass outrage and the Royal Court was prosecuted for putting the play on unlicensed. In a letter to the Observer, Laurence Olivier wrote: ‘Saved is not a play for children but it is for grownups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it.’ The Royal Court lost the case but, in the long-run, Saved created waves that led to the abolition of stage censorship in 1968.