PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORIAE

by Nelson, Richard

The play opens in 1970 in a Latin American country where two aspiring young writers are thrown into prison for distributing subversive leaflets. The second part of the play is set fifteen years later when the right-wing dictatorship has been replaced by a left-wing revolutionary government. The political tables have turned and the ‘principles of writing’ have ironically altered. The two men now find themselves on opposite sides of the conference table bargaining for the release of a poet held by the new leftist government. Within this context, Richard Nelson explores and questions the relationship between the two men when principles of a more creative and personal nature are undermined by political pressures and literary ambition.

“Rich and stimulating - a geunine play of ideas…a brilliant study of two young men” - The Guardian