London: Pluto Press/Royal Court, 1980

8vo, pp.55. Original blue illustrated paper wrappers. Slight discoloration near spine, otherwise a fine copy.

First edition.

Andrea Dunbar began writing The Arbor in 1977, when she was fifteen years old. The story of teenage pregnancy and domestic violence on a Bradford sink estate was written by someone who knew what she was talking about: the play won the Royal Court's 1980 Young Writers' Festival, and transferred to the main stage in June 1980, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, and with Kathy Pogson, Ron Cook, Jeff Rawle and David Haig among the cast. Dunbar went on to write Rita, Sue and Bob Too (also staged at the Court), but couldn't escape her cataclysmic background. She died in 1990 at the age of twenty-nine.

A very scarce copy of the first edition of this legendary production -- one of the Royal Court's proudest moments.