Puzzle: European playwright imprisoned by British (8)
I believe the answer is:
bewilder
'puzzle' is the definition.
('bewilder' can be a synonym of 'puzzle')
'european playwright imprisoned by british' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'playwright' becomes 'wilde' (I've seen this before**).
'imprisoned by' indicates putting letters inside.
'british' becomes 'br'.
'e'+'wilde'='ewilde'
'ewilde' placed inside 'br' is 'BEWILDER'.
(Other definitions for bewilder that I've seen before include "Perplex the wild beer" , "Flummox, confuse" , "Nonplus" , "Confuse totally" , "fox" .)