Caryl Churchill

Four British plays deal with a poet and her mother, a family's breakdown in communication, a woman who literally wrestles with her problems, and the interaction of a group of office workers

This timely drama resulted from a trip to Romania. Developed with students from London's Central School of Drama this is an incisive portrait of society in turmoil that focuses on two families to reveal what life is like under a totalitarian regime and what results when the regime collapses. The play's brief scenes are almost cinematic in their presentation of events as seen by ordinary people trying to live in peace.

Two plays by Caryl Churchill in one volume which played as a double bill. In Ice Cream Americans James and Vera travel to England to find James's relatives. They locate third cousins who are decidedly low life and become entangled in a murder. In the powerful vignettes of Hot Fudge the competitive games of various professionals and their spouses present an amoral world where money is all and lies are the only truth.

'Make me happen' Your partner's died, could things have been different? Caryl Churchill's short play What If If Only premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2021, directed by James Macdonald. This edition also includes the resonant and surreal short piece, Air. 'Caryl Churchill has remade the landscape of contemporary drama – and earned herself a place among the greats' Guardian

A girl made of glass. Gods and murders. A serial killer's friends. And a secret in a bottle. Four stories by Caryl Churchill. Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, London, in September 2019, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

Caryl Churchill's dazzling play about a world sliding into chaos, in a new edition published alongside the play's revival at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2020. Far Away was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London, in November 2000.

In Here We Go, Churchill confronts the topic of ageing and death, told in 3 separate sections. In the first part of the play, friends gather at a funeral and discuss, without much feeling, the passing of a friend. The second part is a monologue about the afterlife, and in the third section, a dying man is dressed and undressed by a loving caregiver. Contains roles for 3-8 characters.

"I'm walking down the street and there's a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I've seen before." Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

"You western-backed goats, They forced us into slavery and killed millions. Now they want us to accept the sinfulness of homos. It shall not work." In 2014, Uganda passed an Anti-Homosexuality Act. This short, startling play looks at what lies behind it. Caryl Churchill's Pigs and Dogs is substantially based on material from Boy Wives and Female Husbands by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe. It premiered at the Royal Court in 2016.

I believe in the individual. Look at me.Set in the early Thatcher years, Top Girls is a seminal play of the modern theatre, revealing a world of women's experience at a pivotal moment in British history. Told by an eclectic group of historical and modern characters in a continuous conversation across ages and generations it was described by The Guardian as ‘the best British play ever from a woman dramatist’. The play opens with an anachronistic dinner party hosted by Marlene, the newly-promoted manager of the ‘Top Girls’ employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: a female Pope, a courtesan-cum-nun, a tireless adventurer, an obedient wife from Chaucer and the leader of a charge into hell from a Bruegel painting. The feminist themes introduced by this cacophonous scene echo throughout the more contemporary action of the play, as Churchill uses the setting of the ‘Top Girls’ agency to allow a glimpse into the lives of several very different working women.The play presents complex questions about a feminism which mimics aggressive, oppressive behaviour, and success which can only be achieved by abandoning family ties to force a way to the top. Top Girls premiered in 1982 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.Methuen Drama’s iconic Modern Plays series began in 1959 with the publication of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey and has grown over six decades to now include more than 1000 plays by some of the best writers from around the world. This new special edition hardback of Top Girls was published to celebrate 60 years of Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays in 2019, chosen by a public vote and features a foreword by critic and journalist Ann McFerran.

In this collection of plays from one of our finest dramatists, Caryl Churchill demonstrates her remarkable ability to find new forms to express profound truths about the world we live in. Complete with a new introduction by the author, this volume contains: Seven Jewish Children (Royal Court Theatre, London, 2009): a short play about seven families wondering how to protect their children, written at the time of the bombing of Gaza by Israel in 2008–9. Love and Information (Royal Court, 2012): a fast-moving kaleidoscope in which more than a hundred characters try to make sense of what they know. Ding Dong the Wicked (Royal Court, 2012): two families on opposite sides of a war, locked in identical hatred. Here We Go (National Theatre, 2015): a play about dying and being dead. Escaped Alone (Royal Court, 2016): three old friends and an unexpected neighbour have tea in a sunny back yard, and face catastrophes. Pigs and Dogs (Royal Court, 2016): a look at how colonialism crushed the fluidity of sexuality in Africa and brought a new intolerance, as shown in the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. Also included are three previously unpublished short plays, each written in response to political events: War and Peace Gaza Piece (2014), Tickets are Now On Sale (2015) and Beautiful Eyes (2017). 'The wit, invention and structural ingenuity of Churchill's work are remarkable… she never does anything twice' Telegraph 'The most dazzlingly inventive living dramatist in the English language' New York Times

Marlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill’s play prompts us to question our notions of women's success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women's choices and restrictions regarding career and family.This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains:· A chronology of the play and the playwright’s life and work· an introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created· a succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece· an analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text· a bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.

With two distinctive acts, Blue Heart adheres to the award-winning playwright's famously experimental style. This revised edition features two related parts--Heart's Desire and Blue Kettle--both teasingly entertaining and brilliantly executed, one about a father and daughter, the other about a mother and son, each pushing the boundaries of what the medium of theatre can be. Caryl Churchill's plays include Cloud 9, Top Girls, Far Away, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Bliss, Love and Information, Mad Forest, A Number, and several others. In 2002, she received the Obie Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2010, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Caryl Churchill: 'A dramatist who must surely be rated among the half-dozen best now writing... a playwright of genuine audacity and assurance, able to use her considerable wit and intelligence in ways at once unusual, resonant and dramatically riveting' Benedict Nightingale, New Statesman 'Ms Churchill is one of our best writers... her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme' Bryan Robertson, Spectator Set in the early Thatcher years, Top Girls is a serminal play of the modern theatre, revealing a world of women's experience at a pivotal moment in British history. Told by an eclectic group of historical and modern characters in a continuous conversation across ages and generations, Top Girls was hailed as 'the best British play ever by a woman dramatist' (Guardian). Commentary and notes by Bill Naismith and Nick Worrall

"What Churchill has written is a striking memento mori for an age without faith; and although her play is brief, that in itself evokes the idea that we are here for a short time and then are suddenly gone." The Guardian on Here We Go"Line by line it's hard to imagine you'll come across a more brilliant play this year . . . and what makes Escaped Alone a great play is that it is strangely euphoric: spiked with terrible, apocalyptic foreboding, yes, but Churchill's funniest since Serious Money, and with an incredible gift for spinning light out of the dark."Time Out London on Escaped AloneThe prolific repertoire of Caryl Churchill gains two thrilling new entries with Here We Go and Escaped Alone, both exemplary of her notoriously dark, witty work. Creeping and ruminative, Here We Go "acts as a chilling reminder of our own mortality" (The Guardian), with a three-part examination of death and its aftermath. Escaped Alone considers a notably broader demise: the apocalypse. Through the musings of four older women idly chatting in an English back garden, the fate of the world is outlined in an unsettling revelation of mankind's own self-destruction.Caryl Churchill has written for the stage, television, and radio. A renowned and prolific playwright, her plays include Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Far Away, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Bliss, Love and Information, Mad Forest , and A Number. In 2002, she received the Obie Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2010, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame."

Two exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one-act plays from one of the UK’s leading playwrights. Heart’s Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter’s return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions. Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek’s plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus. In Caryl Churchill’s ever-inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships. Blue Heart was first performed at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in August 1997 in a touring co-production by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre. This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its premiere, in a co-production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.

'You western-backed goats, They forced us into slavery and killed millions. Now they want us to accept the sinfulness of homos. It shall not work.' In 2014, Uganda passed an Anti-Homosexuality Act. This short, startling play looks at what lies behind it. Caryl Churchill's Pigs and Dogs premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by Dominic Cooke.

Marlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights. It was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982."Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind." (John Peter, Sunday Times)

Softcops renders the philosophy of Foucault as a music-hall turn and Victorian freakshow "theatre and history combine to give such intelligent fun" (TLS); Top Girls brings five great and less-than-great women from history together for a dinner party and "has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert" (Sunday Times); Fen scrutinises the lives of the low-paid women potato pickers of the fens (in Eastern England) and "the playwright pins down her poetic subject matter in dialogue of impressive vigour and economy" (Financial Times) while Serious Money is a satirical study of the effects of the Big Bang - "Pure genius...the first play about the city to capture the authentic atmosphere of the place." (Daily Telegraph)

“I’m walking down the street and there’s a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I’ve seen before.” Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Caryl Churchill's play Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald. It was named Best Play at the 2017 Writers' Guild Awards. 'Caryl Churchill never does the same thing twice. Each play in her exquisite portfolio is an experiment in form. Her works are uniquely individual creations' The Times