DAVID EDGAR is best known for his adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby for the RSC, for whom he also wrote Destiny, Maydays, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Pentecost and The Prisoner's Dilemma. His plays at the National include The Shape of the Table, Entertaining Strangers with Judi Dench, Albert Speer and Playing with Fire. His two most recent are Testing the Echo, which toured the UK in 2008, and A Time to Keep, a community play for Dorchester. His book How Plays Work was published by NHB in 2009. He lives in Birmingham.