David Edgar on local democracy

This time last year, I was finishing a play about a race riot in a fictional west Yorkshire town. The play was written for the National Theatre's late summer 'topical' slot, but I had no idea how timely it would prove to be.

We went into rehearsal three weeks after the July bombings. The day after the play opened, Trevor Phillips made his speech warning that Britain was 'sleepwalking into segregation'. On the evening of the play's last performance, riots broke out between Asians and Afro-Caribbeans in Birmingham.

More from Guild member David Edgar inThe Observer.