Red Sun and Merlin Unchained are the most recent original stage works by one of the most accomplished yet neglected dramatists of our time. Red Sun is a two-hander, tightly tethered within the classical unities of theme and space and the span of a single day. Merlin Unchained is an explosive, multitudinous epic, crossing continents and centuries and passing between worlds. Yet though technically so different, both works speak with the same distinctive voice, offering an exhilarating—and sometimes disturbing— challenge to the cultural and political perceptions of the contemporary audience, and exploring alien worlds that, alarmingly, begin to become recognizable as our own.
 

David Rudkin is a playwright, screenwriter, and translator who has worked for nearly fifty years in theater, cinema, radio, and television.

Red Sun: Dramatist’s Foreword

      David Rudkin

Red Sun

Red Sun and the Promise of Myth

      Karoline Gritzner

Merlin Unchained: Dramatist’s Foreword

      David Rudkin

Merlin Unchained

‘Broken Magic?’: A Director’s Perspective on Merlin Unchained

      David Ian Rabey

‘Only a Bard’: The Theatre of David Rudkin
      Robert Wilcher

About the Dramatist and Contributors