Far Away

by Caryl Churchill

Overview

A brilliant and unsettling play from one of the UK's leading dramatists. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2000.

At the opening of the play, a young girl is questioning her aunt about having seen her uncle hitting people with an iron bar; by the end, several years later, the whole world is at war - including birds and animals. Far Away is a howl of anguish at the increasing – and increasingly accepted – levels of inhumanity in a world seemingly perpetually involved in conflict.

'You know you are in the hands of a master' The Sunday Times

'Churchill was expected to produce something explosive, but... she has exceeded the critics' highest expectations' The Observer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780011141
Publisher:	Hern, Nick Books
Publication date:	11/15/2012
Series:	NHB Modern Plays
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	46
File size:	122 KB

About the Author

CARYL CHURCHILL's plays include "Cloud Nine" (revived in 2007 to huge acclaim at the Almeida, London), "Top Girls", "Serious Money", "The Skriker", "Blue Heart", "Far Away" and "A Number". Most are published by NHB. Caryl Churchill (1938-) is probably the most respected woman dramatist in the English-speaking world. She is the author of some twenty plays including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Serious Money, The Skriker, Blue Heart, Far Away and A Number, seen and admired all over the world.

Editorial Reviews

"A new Caryl Churchill play is an event." - Michael Billington, The Guardian

"There's nothing like this play around today." - The Sunday Times

"Churchill is our most visionary writer. It may be a decade old, but this is a play that feels more resonant than ever." - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

FOUR STARS: "As rich and disturbing as anything we’ve seen this century." - Dominic Maxwell, The Times (London)

"Deeply disturbing. Far Away has the picturesque form and gentle rhythms of a fairy tale told at bedtime. But it also finds a grating alarm in traditional sounds of comfort, from the lapping of a stream and the lilt of a lullaby to the hesitating confidences exchanged by a boy and girl falling in love. With each new work, Ms. Churchill seems to come up with new rhythms and language to match, in exhilaratingly theatrical terms, what are scarcely trivial subjects, whether it's the rural bleakness and cruelty of Fen (1983) or the capitalist corruption of Serious Money (1987). I can think of no contemporary playwright who combines such scope of imagination and depth of purpose." - Ben Brantley, New York Times

"Chilling... Churchill's play seems to reinvent drama with every other line." - Alisa Solomon, Village Voice

"A masterpiece from one of the most valuable playwrights working today. Churchill is that rare dramatist who imagines different forms and even invented languages every time out." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher