Class Enemy (play) Class Enemy (play) Class Enemy is a 1978 play by the British playwright Nigel Williams which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. Class Enemy was written in 1978 as a social commentary on the apathy and anarchy in inner city British schools, is adapted to the new European reality at the beginning of the 21st century. The set is a bleak classroom with broken tables and chairs, dirty blackboard and lit with sterile fluorescent lamps. The play starts with six students waiting for a teacher and, like Samuel Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, they seem to wait in vain. What the
Samuel Beckett widely discussed and highly prized of 20th-century authors, inspiring a critical industry to rival that which has sprung up around James Joyce. He has divided critical opinion. Some early philosophical critics, such as Sartre and Theodor Adorno, praised him, one for his revelation of absurdity, the other for his works' critical refusal of simplicities; others such as Georg Lukács condemned him for 'decadent' lack of realism. Since Beckett's death, all rights for performance of his plays are handled by the Beckett estate, currently managed by Edward Beckett (the author's nephew). The estate has a controversial reputation for maintaining firm control