Caryl Churchill

Standard Name: Churchill, Caryl
Birth Name: Caryl Churchill
Married Name: Caryl Harter
CC , widely recognised as one of the top contemporary British dramatists, has written plays for radio, television, and the stage. Many of her plays are developed in workshop settings, in collaboration with theatre groups, composers, and choreographers. Her work often explores gender or class issues from a socialist-feminist perspective. Churchill is also noted for her innovative experiments with theatrical form through techniques such as the juxtaposition of historical and contemporary settings, cross-gender and cross-racial casting, overlapping dialogue, and absurdist word play. Her later plays have focused increasingly on language.
Black-and-white photo of Caryl Churchill holding a mug of tea outside, 13 January 1975.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Sarah Kane
At school, SK directed plays by Shakespeare , as well as Joan Littlewood 's musical Oh, What a Lovely War. She took a BA degree in drama at Bristol University (first class honours), and...
Fictionalization Isabella Bird
This intrepid female rider and climber entered debate in the 1980s over the aims and achievements of Western middle-class feminism as a character in Caryl Churchill 's play Top Girls.
Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls. Methuen in Association With the Royal Court Theatre, 1982.
prelims
Feminist criticism and...
Intertextuality and Influence Sarah Kane
This play recalls Racine 's version of the story in Phèdre, but actually refers to Racine's source, Seneca 's Phaedra (perhaps following in the footsteps of Caryl Churchill 's version of Seneca's Thyestes...
Intertextuality and Influence Sarah Daniels
It sprang from a suggestion made by Annie Castledine at a workshop led by herself and Caryl Churchill , that SD should write a play about the women's peace camp at Greenham Common. She...
Intertextuality and Influence Nell Dunn
Probably ND 's best-known play, Steaming was a West End hit and a popular success in both England and North America on its first appearance. Its first reviews were highly favourable. Sarah Hemming in the...
Literary responses Sarah Kane
Billington noted in April 2005 the staggering disparity of perception between the attitude to SK in England (where shehas not entered the theatrical mainstream, but is performed mostly at universities) and in the rest...
Literary responses Sarah Daniels
SD 's plays have been staged around the world: in Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Australia, and Japan. Elaine Aston and Janelle Reinelt have discussed her as an example of...
Literary responses Cicely Hamilton
CH later saw her pageant as firmly anchored in its pre-First-World-War period by its portayal of warriors triumphant. She thought that a group who applied to perform it in 1923 must have been asleep...
Occupation Marina Warner
Her interests have also led her to take part in a workshop on Citizenship, Identity and Democracy for the Commission for a Multiethnic Britain (in 1998, the after the Commission was founded), and to become...
Performance of text Michelene Wandor
The feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment performed Floorshow, a cabaret about women and work by MW , Caryl Churchill , and Bryony Lavery .
Michelene Wandor. http://www.mwandor.co.uk/.
Textual Features Ann Jellicoe
The Sport of My Mad Mother is an experimental play that foregrounds rhythm, sound, and image rather than plot. AJ was inspired to write it after seeing an acting student improvise a dream in which...
Textual Features Lucy Hutchinson
Lucretius , as a pagan philosopher and theologian (and, as LH and her contemporaries believed, insane much of the time and sexually promiscuous), was a daring choice for one of her religious opinions.
Lucretius, and Lucretius. “Introduction”. Lucy Hutchinson’s Translation of Lucretius, "De rerum natura", edited by Hugh De Quehen, translated by. Lucy Hutchinson, University of Michigan Press, 1996, pp. 1-20.
8, 11
Textual Production Bryony Lavery
BL collaborated with Caryl Churchill and Michelene Wandor in a cabaret entitled Floorshow, written for Monstrous Regiment .
Churchill, Caryl. Plays: One. Methuen, 1985.
xii
Textual Production Claire Luckham
Gillian Hanna wrote fifteen years later that this play was created during a period of excitement and turmoil, involved a seemingly endless process of to-ing and fro-ing between the authors and the company to the...
Textual Production Michelene Wandor
MW edited the first volume in an influential series from Methuen : Plays by Women, in which she included work by Caryl Churchill , Pam Gems , and Louise Page along with her own play Aurora Leigh.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.
Michelene Wandor. http://www.mwandor.co.uk/.

Timeline

July 1929: J. B. Priestley published his novel The Good...

Writing climate item

July 1929

J. B. Priestley published his novel The Good Companions, which became a best-seller and made his name.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

14 August 1975: The Monstrous Regiment Theatre Company was...

Women writers item

14 August 1975

The Monstrous Regiment Theatre Company was founded in London by female and male performers, many of whom had already worked with the Women's Street Theatre Company or the Women's Theatre Company .
“Records of The Monstrous Regiment Theatre Company”. AIM25: London Metropolitan University: Women’s Library.
Hanna, Gillian, editor. Monstrous Regiment. Four Plays and a Collective Celebration. Nick Hern Books, 1991.
xvi

By Autumn 1975: Carmen Callil's new Virago Press issued its...

Women writers item

By Autumn 1975

Carmen Callil 's new Virago Press issued its first title, Mary Chamberlain 's Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village, an indictment of rural poverty as it bears on women.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(25 September 1975): 13

September-November 2005: An exhibition at the National Theatre in...

Writing climate item

September-November 2005

An exhibition at the National Theatre in London, Flogging the Jewels, celebrated thirty years of the company now called Sphinx (formerly the Women's Theatre Group).
de Angelis, April. “Riddle of the Sphinx”. Guardian Unlimited, 10 Sept. 2005.

11 July 2009: Enron, only the second play by Lucy Prebble...

Women writers item

11 July 2009

Enron, only the second play by Lucy Prebble to reach the stage, opened at ChichesterFestival Theatre , dramatising the spectacular crash of the US energy giant Enron .
“What’s On”. Chichester Festival Theatre, 2009.

Texts

Churchill, Caryl, and David Lan. A Mouthful of Birds. Methuen and Joint Stock Theatre Group, 1986.
Churchill, Caryl. Blue Heart. Theatre Communications Group, 1997.
Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9. Revised American edition, Routledge, 1991.
Churchill, Caryl. Cloud Nine. Pluto Press, 1979.
Churchill, Caryl. Escaped Alone—NHB Modern Plays. Nich Hern Books, 2016.
Churchill, Caryl. Far Away. Nick Hern and Royal Court Theatre, 2000.
Churchill, Caryl. Fen. Methuen and Joint Stock Theatre Group, 1983.
Churchill, Caryl. Icecream. Nick Hern, 1989.
Churchill, Caryl. Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. Pluto Press, 1978.
Churchill, Caryl. Mad Forest: A Play from Romania. Nick Hern, 1990.
Churchill, Caryl. Objections to Sex and Violence. Margaret Ramsay, 1975.
Churchill, Caryl. Owners. Eyre Methuen, 1973.
Churchill, Caryl. Plays: One. Methuen, 1985.
Churchill, Caryl. “Read Caryl Churchillapos;s Seven Jewish Children”. guardia.co.uk.
Churchill, Caryl. Serious Money. Methuen and Royal Court Theatre, 1987.
Churchill, Caryl. Serious Money. Revised and Re-issued Edition in the Methuen Modern Play Series, Methuen, 1990.
Churchill, Caryl. Softcops. Methuen, 1984.
Churchill, Caryl, and Irving Wardle. “The Ants”. New English Dramatists 12, Penguin, pp. 89-103.
Churchill, Caryl. The Skriker. Nick Hern, 1994.
Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls. Methuen in Association With the Royal Court Theatre, 1982.
Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls. Methuen and Royal Court Theatre, 1982.
Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls. Revised, Post-Production Edition, Methuen, 1984.
Churchill, Caryl. Traps. Pluto Press, 1978.
Churchill, Caryl. Vinegar Tom. TQ Publications, 1978.