Caryl Churchill

by Caryl Churchill

The volume traces the scope and development of Caryl Churchill's theatre from her early writing for radio and television, through her stage career of the 1970s and 1980s to her recent major success Far Away (2000). Making use of contemporary critical and feminist theory, the study offers close
dramatic and theatrical readings of the plays highlighting Churchill's concerns with feminism, socialism and theatrical style. A key chapter on 'The Woman Writer' examines those plays, including Cloud Nine and Top Girls, which brought Churchill to the attention of the international feminist theatre
academy, and links Churchill's emergent feminism to her personal struggle to combine a career in the theatre with motherhood. Detailing the international success of play such as Serious Money and Mad Forest, alongside some of the lesser known and lesser studied earlier work, this accessible account
illustrates how Churchill has come to be recognised as one of the leading playwrights of our contemporary theatre.

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2010

About the author

Caryl Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, dramatisation of the abuses of power, and exploration of sexual politics.[1] She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and one of world theatre's most influential writers.

Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of 'Epic theatre' to explore issues of gender and sexuality. From A Mouthful of Birds (1986) onwards, she began to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Antonin Artaud with his 'Theatre of Cruelty'. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterises her work as postmodernist.

Prizes and awards

Churchill has received much recognition, including the following awards:

1958 Sunday Times/National Union of Students Drama Festival Award Downstairs
1961 Richard Hillary Memorial Prize
1981 Obie Award for Playwriting, Cloud Nine
1982 Obie Award for Playwriting, Top Girls
1983 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (runner-up), Top Girls
1984 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Fen
1987 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy of the Year, Serious Money
1987 Obie Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
1987 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Serious Money
1988 Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
2001 Obie Sustained Achievement Award
2010 Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Plays

Downstairs (1958)
You've No Need to be Frightened (1959?)
Having a Wonderful Time (1960)
Easy Death (1960)
The Ants, radio drama (1962)
Lovesick, radio drama (1969)
Identical Twins (1960)
Abortive, radio drama (1971)
Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen, radio drama (1971)
Owners (1972)
Schreber's Nervous Illness, radio drama (1972) – based on Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (written 1972)
The Judge's Wife, radio drama (1972)
Moving Clocks Go Slow, (1973)
Turkish Delight, television drama (1973)
Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) [7]
Vinegar Tom (1976)
Traps (1976)
The After-Dinner Joke, television drama (1978)
Seagulls (written 1978)
Cloud Nine (1979)
Three More Sleepless Nights (1980)
Top Girls (1982)
Crimes, television drama (1982)
Fen (1983)
Softcops (1984)
A Mouthful of Birds (1986)
A Heart's Desire (1987)[18]
Serious Money (1987)
Ice Cream (1989)
Hot Fudge (1989)
Mad Forest (1990)
Lives of the Great Poisoners (1991)
The Skriker (1994)
Blue Heart (1997)
Hotel (1997)
This is a Chair (1999)
Far Away (2000)
Thyestes (2001) – translation of Seneca's tragedy
A Number (2002)
A Dream Play (2005) – translation of August Strindberg's play
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006)
Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (2009)
Love and Information (2012)
Ding Dong the Wicked (2013)
Here We Go (play) (2015)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Ch...

Reviews

[Melanie Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

'"Playwrights don't give answers, they ask questions", wrote Churchill in an early essay on theatre" (in 'Twentieth Century' Nov 1960). This signposts what to expect from Churchill's plays and Aston further enlightens us: 'Churchill's theatre is not just a question of politics, but a politics of style'. Churchill's experimental approach leads to 'Exploding Words and Worlds' (Chapter 5 in Aston). In this 2001 second edition, Aston competently takes us through an analysis of Churchill's plays up to and including 'Far Away'(2000). Churchill's plays are fascinating and often not only point to problems at the time, but are prophetic. Consequently they remain very pertinent to our world today.

I have happy memories of performing in two of Churchill's plays, 'Vinegar Tom' and 'Light Shining in Buckinghamshire' at Birmingham University when I was a student there in the early 1980s and I remain very grateful to my tutors there for introducing me to her work. I particularly recommend her play 'Cloud Nine'(1979), which explores colonial and sexual oppression as well as 'Top Girls' (1982), described by Aston as a 'socialist-feminist critique of bourgeois-feminist values'.

This book is a useful tool for obtaining an overview of Churchill's plays - read it, read Churchill's plays and either go and see, or get involved in performing in some of them. You may at times feel bewildered, you are likely to be inspired - you are unlikely to forget Churchill's creations.