‘Many plays confront death. A few deal with the process of dying. Caryl Churchill’s new work manages, in 45 minutes, to encompass both. It not only confirms her ability to experiment with dramatic form but, more importantly, acts as a chilling reminder of our own mortality. While initially it seems slight, I find it’s grown steadily in the mind since I read it.
‘Like Churchill’s more overtly political Far Away (2000), it comes in three distinct, but cunningly linked, segments. In the first part, which gives the play its title, we watch a group of assorted guests reminiscing at an old man’s funeral. A picture gradually emerges of a cat-loving, much-married leftie who could be contentious or kind according to circumstance. This is just the kind of random chat you might hear at any funeral but what is noticeable is the guests’ self-preoccupation and the real dramatic shock comes when, wineglass in hand, they break the fourth wall to announce the precise details of their own deaths.
‘In the second, more daring section, titled After, Churchill projects us into the darkened world of the dead man. Patrick Godfrey, white-bearded and bewildered, delivers an extraordinary monologue in which the undiscovered country contains elements of classical, Christian and Coptic mythology. Behind it all lies a yearning for a return in any available form, whether human or animal, just to re-experience life. But although it’s a powerful speech, it lacks the poetic vision of a Shakespeare or Dante. When Claudio in Measure for Measure imagines “thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice” or Dante’s narrator sees hypocrites tormented by the weight of leaden cloaks, one gets a graphic image of the terrors of the afterworld.
‘But it is Churchill’s third section, Getting There, that is both the most testing and humane. It is an entirely wordless sequence in which an old man (Godfrey again) is levered from his bed to be divested of his pyjamas and dressed in shirt, trousers, socks and shoes by a loving carer. Once this is completed he moves, with the aid of a walking-frame, to a nearby chair. After a few moments, the carer undresses him again in preparation for his return to bed. This process, which poignantly captures the ritual humiliations of sickness and age, is repeated several times over until the light slowly fades. If I hadn’t been told otherwise, I would have assumed this was a piece by Samuel Beckett, the poet of terminal stages.
‘I would readily admit that death has more potency in a play like the medieval Everyman or a poem like Dante’s Inferno, which rest on the belief that earthly sin carries with it the prospect of divine punishment. But 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.’ — Michael Billington
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Further
Caryl Churchill @ Wikipedia
Caryl Churchill @ Nick Hern Books
Telling feminist tales: Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill 2 goodreads
CARYL CHURCHILL AND THE DRAMA OF TERRORS
The Dramas of Caryl Churchill: The Politics of Possibility
Envisioning Identity: Theatrical and Political Innovations in Caryl Churchill’s Plays
Caryl Churchill and more things in heaven and earth
Book: ‘Churchill’s Socialism: Political Resistance in the Plays of Caryl Churchill’
Caryl Churchill – the ‘Picasso’ of Modern British Theatre
Caryl Churchill: Revolutionizing Form & Content
Caryl Churchill’s Prophetic Drama
Caryl Churchill Knows How to Do Things with Words
‘A writer of protean gifts’
Caryl Churchill at 80 – celebrating UK theatre’s ‘ultimate playwright’
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Extra
Playwright Caryl Churchill visits the West Bank
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No Interview
‘Since the death of JD Salinger, one of my biggest regrets as an interviewer is that Caryl Churchill declines to speak publicly about her work. It’s a resolution she has stuck to through the quarter century in which she has established herself as one of theatre’s most innovative and provocative dramatists.’ — Mark Lawson, The Guardian
‘On a recent trip to London, I attempted to arrange an interview with Caryl Churchill, who alongside Tom Stoppard is considered the greatest living English playwright. I didn’t expect to get an answer (Ms. Churchill hasn’t granted a real interview since the 1990s) and indeed, I did not get one. Trying to obtain an audience with her is like trying to obtain one with Thomas Pynchon or Cormac McCarthy. She maintains a Sphinx-like silence.’ — Dwight Garner, NYT
‘Two things are frequently said about Caryl Churchill: that she is the greatest playwright alive, and that she is one of the most elusive. While she occasionally discusses her work with researchers and fellow theatre-makers, she has not granted an interview to a major newspaper since the nineteen-nineties; her communications with the press are generally restricted to letters to the editor on political causes.’ — Andrew Dickson, The New Yorker
As Churchill told The Guardian in 1972, “Radio is good because it makes you precise. Then there’s the freedom. You can do almost anything in a radio play.”
In a 1987 interview with The New York Times, she explained, “I was fed up with the situation I found myself in in the 1960’s. I didn’t like being a barrister’s wife and going out to dinner with other professional people and dealing with middle-class life. It seemed claustrophobic. Having started off with undefined idealistic assumptions about the kind of life we could lead, we had drifted into something quite conventional and middle class and boring. By the mid-60’s, I had this gloomy feeling that when the Revolution came, I would be swept away.”
When she was asked in an interview what kind of society she would like to live in, she replied, “I would like to live in a society that is decentralized, nonauthoritarian, nonsexist-a society where people can be in touch with their feelings and in control of their lives.” When pressed for a political theory, she responded, “I combine a fairly strong commitment-an antipathy for capitalism-with a fairly wobbly theoretic grasp.”
Overlapping within the language of her play Top Girls are Churchill’s feminist agendas, as she explained in an interview with Emily Mann: “What I was intending to do was make it first look as though it was celebrating the achievements of women then – by showing the main character Marlene, being successful in a very competitive, destructive, capitalist way – ask, what kind of achievement is that? The idea was that it would start out looking like a feminist play and turn into a socialist one, as well.”
As Churchill once recalled, “I didn’t really feel a part of what was happening in the sixties. During that time I felt isolated. I had small children and was having miscarriages. It was an extremely solitary life. What politicised me was being discontent with my own way of life—of being a barrister’s wife and just being at home.”
Having begun writing short stories as a schoolgirl, Churchill would spend one summer helping to paint sets for a summer theater, but she did not “put the two things together”—writing and the stage—until her studies at Oxford and exposure to the works of Samuel Beckett, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, T. S. Eliot, and Bertolt Brecht, all of whom she has acknowledged as important influences. She wrote her first play in response to a friend’s need for something to direct. “It was a turning point,” as she recalled. “I realized I preferred things as plays. It has something to do with . . . liking things actually happening.”
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Book
Caryl Churchill Here We Go
Nick Kern Books
‘A funeral party for a man with an adventurous past and a ginger cat that needs a home.
‘Where is he now? Is his heart lighter than a feather? How did he die? And what happens to his friends?
‘Here We Go by Caryl Churchill is a short play about dying. It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2015, in a production directed by Dominic Cooke.’ — Nick Kern Books
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The play
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p.s. Hey. ** Tea, Hi, Tea. You could see the hate in its eyes. And the hate seemed complicated. I used to say my favorite animal is the giraffe, and I’ve never really known why, and I guess maybe it still is. Giraffes seem cool and nice, but they also seem like a creature you would imagine during a bad drug trip or something. How are you (doing)? ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’ve never scuba dived. Have you? I think I’d like to. I think you’re right that the electric ones are the zombies, but I don’t know why. Hm. Ha ha, love is going to be a billionaire from that invention. Strange that no company has ever offered that at least as a Halloween goodie. Love being voted the greatest extreme death metal band in recorded history even though he’s not a band, G. ** Misanthrope, Thank you, G., that’s very heartening to hear. If TC actually eats someone in that movie let me know because I might watch it on plane flight maybe. My day’s largely preparatory re: trip. Just to let you know, due to the tightness of time before I fly to LA on Monday morning and the blog’s consequent impending vacation, I’m pretty sure the Joe post, which I greatly appreciate and look forward to, will have to wait to launch once the blog restarts in mid-November. I hope that’s okay. ** David Ehrenstein, I know there must be some poetic connection between ‘Ohio’ and Paul’s post, but I’m not coffee-d up enough to figure it out. Which is not a bad thing, mind you. ** Jeff J, I dug it, indeed! You already have a few more EPs coming? You guys are practically Pollardian. Patrick Lannan, who started the foundation, was equally into literature and art, and funded many things/people in both areas, but it seems his kids who just took over are not enamoured of literature, and that’s basically the sadly simple story, I think. But I’ll ask Michael more precisely when I see him in LA. ** tomk, Hi, Tom! I hope your head is lighter and better. ** Damien Ark, Hi, bud, and thanks. That house in your old neighbourhood sounds exciting, obviously. Redmond, Oregon: I’ll do a google street view thing and see what you’re saddled with. Guess what? You do have a haunted house attraction there, and people seem to like it even: ScareGrounds Haunted Attractions, 120 SW Glacier Ave, Redmond, OR 97756. Website. Check it out and let me know. I hope the confusion around your book parts like the Red Sea and that sort of thing. ** Bill, Howdy, Bill. Thank you, and thank you again. That makes sense: the Killian comparison, yeah. I think they might’ve even collaborated on a story once. What else is new? ** Sypha, High five. ** _Black_Acrylic, Good god, not again. I ‘pray’ this is a blip and the very last one. ** Jamie, Hi, Jamie. I’m right as rain, whatever that means. It was very awesome to see you. I’m glad the Joan Mitchell show won its day, if it did. What now re: you? My Wednesday was just getting my head around what I need to do before I leave and, uh, having the hiccups for three hours, and, uh, … I think that’s sadly the entirety. Viciously pacifistic love, me. ** l@rst, My pleasure, big L. Lost? Found. What up? ** malcolm, Hi, malcolm, welcome to here. Yeah, I never check back to see if comments come in late, bad habit. Oh, great. I’d love to see your film, and I’ll do my utmost to do that. Grand Action Cinema, 6 pm, I see. I think I can. Are you guys here for the screening? Congrats, and I really hope I can be there. If by chance I can’t, is there a link to a screener or something? But let me try to see it onscreen. Thank you a lot for the alert! Much love back. ** Steve Erickson, Nope, I haven’t heard the Reptile House. I’ll hunt it. I’ll start with that 8-minute closer. Thanks! ** Paul Curran, Man of the 24+ hours! My joy entirely. It totally blasted off. Mega-roiling love in quick return! ** Robert, Yay! Sometimes when I’ve felt really stuck, I’ll literally pull out a book or writer I like and start imitating the style/voice to break my logjam, and it almost always works, and no one has ever seemed to be the wiser about was what I wrote’s mentor. Yeah, I really would put that aside. I bet a million dollars that what you’re afraid is overly visible in your writing was just its launching pad. What’s really weird in retrospect is that Bernhard was all super cheerful, waving, bowing, grinning. He must’ve hit one of Amsterdam weed cafes just before. Ah, Rob. I’m always just Dennis except for family members (Denny) and a few old friends (Den). ** Niko, hi, Niko! How very nice to see you! I’m good, thank you. Wow, congratulations on the near finishing of your second novel. That’s very exciting, and a long time coming, no? Great! That’s a tough question about the end point. Ultimately for me I guess it’s mostly instinctual. There does always seem to come a point where I’m just left fiddling with punctuation and tiny things, and I realise it’s time to lock it down. I did used to have a trusted writer friend I showed my seemingly final drafts too, and that did help, but now I feel like I can tell. No, I’ve never had second thoughts about my novels. There are decisions in them that I wouldn’t have made if I knew what I know now, but I also think knowing more can also be a poison since, you know, sometimes what’s good about one’s writing is how one makes really curious mistakes. Generally, in my experience, it is usually about a year between acceptance of a novel by a publisher and its publication. And, as you probably know, you can make more changes when you’re doing your edit with your editor and even to some degree once the novel’s in galleys. All of which is to say, yeah, if the editing starts driving you crazy, you’re probably finished, and don’t be scared that you might not have reached the finish line because you’ll have time to work on it further. If that helps? Big congrats!!! ** Mike Rossi, Hi, Mike! Really nice to meet you! I’m sure we’re in agreement. How could we not be? I am absolutely going to see the ABBA virtual thing, you bet. I don’t know when. I guess in November maybe? When does it end, if it does? Wait, I’ll check. Awesome that you got to see it. I’m slathering. ** Brian, As you know, I’m a gigantic haunted attraction fan, but even I was never remotely tempted to try McKamey Manor. I do think it’s interesting that some people see Halloween as a good cover to indulge their masochism. The scariest and best moment in ‘Lost Highway’ for me is this brief but amazing moment near the beginning when Bill Pullman looks down this lowlit hall and then just starts walking into it. It’s like almost nothing, but it’s so eerie. ‘Save that for the honors course’: that is a nice retort. Shakespeare exhaustion is highly understandable. It sort of blows my mind that people are still assigned Herman Hesse. Not that I’ve read him since I was in high school. Productive Wednesday then. Mine was sort of vaguely too, but I need to get more productive today, wish me luck. Luck back if you need it. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Yeah, very sad and shocking about Joe. Fucking death. Cool that the ILP event went well. Michael said it did too, and he can be quite a grump, so it must’ve been good, ha ha. Zac and I wil be waving at you across the continent when you’re reading in NYC. Keep your skin peeled for a mysterious light breeze. Love, me. ** Mildred, Hi, Mildred. You have wonderful taste, and thank you for entering this humble abode. ** Right. Very recently I read the Caryl Churchill play I’m spotlighting today, and I thought it was great, and it’s the only thing I’ve ever read by her, strangely. Anyway, hence the share. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Dennis, TC gonna be eatin’ bitches left and right in that movie. 😀
Okay. Phew. Actually, that works out. There are a couple people I want to contact and get stories from and I know for a fact they’ll take a while to get back to me. I think that works perfectly. There’s no rush.
Still putting this all together in my mind, as you may expect. It’s so weird and surreal.
I hope your prep goes well and that you and Zac have a safe flight(s) to and a great time in LA.
The poetic connection is between the images of the massacre shown in the post and the lytics of the song
hello again! thank you for the response! thank you for the congrats, this was the first thing i’ve ever been involved with that was even submitted to a festival so to have it get in is pretty surreal. unfortunately i won’t be at the screening but my best friend alexander will be. he directed the short, based off of an idea that i had.
when we were making the film i wasn’t familiar with your work, but now i’ve read 7 books of yours and i almost consider it to be retroactively inspired by you. there’s some similarities between it and some things you’ve done, which is maybe why alexander was drawn to the idea and wanted to direct it, he’s been a fan of yours for a while now.
anyways, i really hope you like it. again, if you can’t make it, no worries at all. i’m not telling alexander about this interaction at all so there’ll be no broken hearts if you don’t show, but tell him i sent you if you do end up there!
he’s very important to me. when i read try (which i immediately named my favourite book of all time after reading), ziggy’s feelings for calhoun reminded me a lot of my feelings for him, so much so that i cried multiple times. i literally felt like i was reading a conversation between alexander and i. and maybe that’s a sign of an unhealthy relationship, who knows. but i love him so much, and it’ll mean a lot to him and even more to me.
i’m in nova scotia right now, but someday i hope to make it over there. if i never can, i’m at least glad that you’ll get to meet some part of me through him, and i’ll get to meet some piece of you in the same way once he comes back home. also – as far as a screener goes, it’s nowhere online right now, but we’d 100% upload it to send to you if you wanted to see!
hope your day goes well! thank you again!!
hi dc!!
i’m amazed you’ve never read any Churchill before. she’s such a big name over here. one of the few (i think the only?) contemporary experimental writers to be taught in high school. i’ve never met her but a friend of mine tells me (and i hope it’s true) she occasionally goes to Royal Court press nights only to spend the evening in the corner bitching with Martin Crimp. (Crimp i have met. fantastic hair. he accused me of mansplaining Beckett. long story.) i’ll often either adore or despise something by Churchill. _Far Away_ and _The Skriker_ are probably my favourites… the first act of _Top Girls_ too, though cf. the taught-in-high-school thing.
anyway, i’m dropping in to wish you & Zac a hearty au revoir and ***Fujita 5 levels of luck and smooth sailing*** for your time in LA!!! (i’m not sure exactly when the blog is hiatus-ing so i’m sending a bit early, just in case). how are you feeling about it? i hope super psyched. (i know i am & for the results, which are — natürlich — gonna be fantastic.)
i’m, i guess, “doing research” now — weird feeling — and heading off the first cold i’ve had since pre-pandemic. (i didn’t miss them.) i got to see Lingua Ignota live the other night, though, which was great. the first half was mostly her singing to a backing track, which i’m never sure how i feel about. esp with rustic horror folky stuff, i kinda wish there were people on stage smashing massive oil barrels with railway sleepers to the beat. but the second half was just her and a prepared piano, and that was really something. what else… oh, i just picked up Gluck’s _Margery Kempe_ for a fiver second hand, which i’m excited for. his name flies around a lot but i’ve never gotten round to him (and _Jack the Modernist_ appears to be extremely out of print).
Hi!!
I’ve never heard of Caryl Churchill. I really like the excerpt! Thank you so much for the introduction!
No, I’ve never scuba dived either. It must be breathtaking (… pun not intended, seriously), but I’m freaked out by huge expanses of deep water, so it’s probably not for me. Or maybe it’d cure my phobia. Hm. I don’t think I’d actually like to find out, haha.
Right? Most people probably wouldn’t go for blood-flavored bubblegum in their everyday lives, but it’d be a hit around Halloween, I’m sure.
That’s some accomplishment, love! I’d check out one of his gigs. Even though he’s not a band. Love promising himself to finally write an email he was supposed to write a week ago tomorrow, Od.
Caryl Churchill is a new name to me, probably quite shamefully. The glimpses of text here are massively intriguing, and I resolve to research further once I’m. free of my current incarceration. I envy politekid’s relative proximity to that scene!
Re the flat, given that the solicitor has not received this document, we’ll just have to hand it in personally at the local branch on Monday, probably getting some kind of confirmation of its receipt. Mum will be back from Ireland tomorrow and together we will get this thing done.
Harry Styles shows off his ass in MY POLICEMAN. He does not show much acting talent, but the film has many other issues. Here’s my review: https://gaycitynews.com/my-policeman-harry-styles-movie-review-2022/
My review of the 1975’s A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS is my favorite out of the music pieces I’ve written, so I’m looking forward to writing about them again for Slant Magazine. But on one listen, their new album is full of fairly straightforward love songs performed as ’80s soft rock homages, and much less interesting to theorize about. I wish Dan Bejar would step in as ghostwriter and push it towards KAPUTT.
Hey D,
I’ll tell ya what’s up, Second session of that poet’s studio thing was another good one.. the teacher/founder of the Attic Writer’s Institute is a guy named David Biespiel, not sure if you’ve heard of him. He’s got a memoir of his years in Boston in the 80’s that I’ll read when the course is done so I don’t get any biased notions. He’s pretty self assured by I don’t mind it in this context, I’ve actually already learned a thing or two I want to apply to my stuff.
I’m now a member at this awesome place called the Independent Publishing Resource Center (not sure if I mentioned that) but it’s got a great computer lab and printers and even a soft cover book binding machine i need to learn. So lots of DIY published stuff planned.
I joined this group Halloween gallery show with 150 artists painting (or whatever media) mythical creatures on a 13″ X 13″ pieces of wood. We drew the monsters from a hat and I got “Black Dog” I’ll share it when it’s done, I’m pretty into it. Big opening gallery party on Halloween. Nice staying busy.
I guess it’s countdown to LA for you…
-L
Dennis, Thanks again! Was great fun! Look forward to hearing some reactions to the book. Love today’s excerpt, structure, style, voice. Have a great weekend!
Also, just checking in to say thanks to anyone I missed yesterday…
David E, Thanks! I totally skimmed over it yesterday. Good one.
Thanks, Robert! Funny PI was kind of tangentially related to my other book Left Hand too.
Niko, thanks and warmest wishes to you too!
Mike Rossi, thanks! Kind of changes year by year, season by mood.
Thanks, Brian! I’m very happy you were intrigued!
Thomas M, Thanks! Love to you, and hope you have a great NY trip!
Mildred, Thanks! I hope you like it!
tender prey, Hey, Marc! Thanks! Talk soon…
Pallas cats have “resting bitch face.” I do too, or so I’m told. Giraffes *are* a solid pick. If only because I immediately associate them with that scene from ‘The Last of Us.’
I’ve been doing some R&R after finishing writing a novel. I’m starting to feel the ennui now, though. I want to write some erotica because I find it difficult to make sex scenes “sexy.” I always focus on the psychology of the act above all else. I mean, that is what really interests me about sex in writing. Still, I don’t want to be a one-trick pony in that regard. So what can you do except practice?
Hey Dennis – Great to see this Caryl Churchill day. I used to be really into her plays. I directed a production of her play “Fen” in college. It’s wonderful, though my favorite is “Mad Forest.” That one is pure genius. For some reason, I haven’t kept up with what she’s done more recently and clearly I need to. What inspired you to check out this particular play?
That’s a shame about the Lannan kids. The whole situation makes me ill.
The new JC music is from a batch of songs we put together during the pandemic. We look prolific now, but it’s all been cobbled together over a fairly long period and waiting for the right moment to release.
Are you having to rewrite or reimagine much for the new movie? Or is part of the trip to LA to determine things like that?
Hey, Dennis,
Been meaning to read more plays, this one seems ideal to begin with. Love the structure in particular. You’re right, it is interesting to imagine the sort of person that would willingly subject themselves to McKamey Manor. Not even hardcore adrenaline junkies seemed to have much fun with it. I suppose it has to be a certain type of masochism for those who actively seek it out (and certainly sadism on the part of the guy who’s running it: he apparently does it for free), although none of the open masochists I know seem particularly keen on his brand of brutality. Kind of conceptually interesting to consider what everybody’s getting out of it from a distance, although the words of the man up close just seem pretty vile and dishonest to me. I’ll keep an eye out for that moment in “Lost Highway”. It sounds really spooky. “Almost nothing” moments in movies are usually the ones that linger the longest, of course. (Just had a shiver thinking about a random shot of a woman’s back in “L’Argent”.) Dare I confess that I was not assigned Hermann Hesse by my school and instead personally chose to read his book on my own? And that I’ve read others before it? His novels obviously tend toward the silly and overwrought and hippy-dippy, and it’s not like he’s an exceptional prose stylist either (at least in translation), but I have a weakness for German romanticism, and there’s something just gentle and pleasurable to me about his books–they make for pleasant waystations between headier stuff. Or probably I’m just young and need that sort of stilted allegorical soul-searching occasionally. I wish you retrospective luck for the day that’s passed and more for the day ahead. Me, I could always use some luck, but I’m more than happy to spare what I have if you’re in need of extra.
Hey Dennis. Thank you so much for what you shared, it does help. And thanks for the congratulations, I’ve indeed been fully absorbed into this manuscript for a long time now. Your idea of a ‘curious mistake’ is very precious and melts some of the perfectionist ice I have around self-empathy. I’ve lost a lot of my confidence in making this piece, perhaps because through continuous editing I’ve gotten somewhat numb to the thrill of the novel’s structure and form. But I guess mainly the text itself is deeply personal and making me vulnerable.
I have a paperback edition of ‘Period’ and on many occasions I’ve flipped through the book just to sense how confident it feels and looks on the page. The form and the structure are so in charge of the whole thing while the vocal characters hesitate, vibrate and even revolt without the novel losing its confidence. That makes me think of ’Try’ on the other hand, because that book was so vulnerable that it felt like its structures were almost about to fall apart, which to me is vulnerability in essence. I believe that once I’m able to see that the form, structure and atmosphere of the novel remain intact even when the inner flow is at its most unstable, I’ll probably start feeling confident again. Talking with you helped a bit, so many thanks.
Hi, Dennis, dropped by to say “good luck and enjoy” since you said you will disappear to LA soon. Have fun and stay healthy. I will try to stay busy & productive and enjoy the autumnal weather while you are away. I’m working on a dream job application right now, I have to go, but it was so nice to speak to you here for a bit. How heartening. See you later! delicate hugs & kisses to you