attacks on the British class system". In 2011, Judith Newmark of St. Louis Post-Dispatch billed the play as a “probing satire [...] with sharp swerves of mood [...] ‘Restoration’ makes for keen political theater, not a billboard for a worthy cause but an exploration of big, demanding themes.” Conversely, University of Oxford professor David Womersley said that Bond "fails to "[make] his victims engaging". He criticized the song "Mans Groans", stating that the play has "too much of this kind of banal preaching". The Spectator's Mark Amory praised the performances of Davis and Bishop but wrote, "Some of the words of the songs are simple and strong [...] the music is pretty, and the idea of the actors stepping out of character to express themselves directly to the audience sounds effective. In the event I found it tedious." A reviewer in Evening Standard said that "Bond brilliantly pastiches the quipstrewn badinage of the genre"; however, the reviewer also argued, "The songs make tedious a second half that already springs few surprises. [...] Bond, having impaled his satirical target, seems to stand around, his sword still embedded, wondering what else to do." References Plays by Edward Bond 1981 plays