Escaped Alone

Last updated
Escaped Alone
Written by Caryl Churchill
Date premieredJanuary 2016 (2016-01)
Place premiered Royal Court Theatre
Original languageEnglish

Escaped Alone is a 2016 play by Caryl Churchill. Critics' reviews were mostly positive.

Reception

Variety's Matt Trueman praised Escaped Alone, writing that "its juxtaposition of afternoon tea and environmental catastrophe proves particularly potent, not to mention wryly funny." Trueman said of the dialogue between the women, "As idle conversation, it’s keenly observed — Churchill’s take on talk for talk’s sake. [1] Susannah Clapp of The Guardian wrote a positive review and stated, "This is fantasy intricately wired into current politics. It is intimate and vast." She called the monologues "extraordinary". [2] Michael Billington wrote in the same newspaper that Mrs Jarrett’s speeches are “less effective as they go along” but praised the garden conversations, praising one exchange as “Churchill at her best, observing with wry compassion how people actually talk”. [3] In The Atlantic , Sophie Gilbert asserted that Escaped Alone "is funny, charming, and alarming, encapsulating an impossible amount into its brisk 55-minute running time." Gilbert also said that "its sense of female endurance resonates." [4]

Cameron Woodhead of The Sydney Morning Herald dubbed the play "brilliant" despite having reservations about the performance he saw (at the Red Stitch Actors Theatre), and argued, "Three layers of dramatic action emerge. Light, avoidant surface chat plays over subjective unravelling and personal armageddon, with a black comic buffet of dystopian possibilities erupting from under them. It makes perfect dramatic sense as a kind of reverse pyramid of repression". [5] Jerry Wasserman of Vancouver Sun praised Escaped Alone as a welcome shift from the realism of much of modern theater and wrote that it is "filled with provocative ideas and entertaining dialogue". Making a comparison of one line to Monty Python, he said the women engage in "often very funny conversation" and that the work "is as rich in implication as its meanings are oblique." [6] Time Out's Andrzej Lukowski lauded the play as a "masterpiece" in a review of a later Churchill work. [7]

Conversely, Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter praised Macdonald's work as director but called the play itself "familiar ground for Churchill". Writing that the work's "sketchy revelations about its protagonists serve little dramatic purpose, and arrive at no clear resolution", Dalton described Escaped Alone as "a minor late work from a major dramatist". [8] In The Arts Desk, Mary Paula Hunter dismissed the play as "a strange and unsatisfying mix of whimsy and black humor [...] To be truly effective black humor must have us laughing at something we fear, regret, or at the very least recognize. Churchill’s little backyard gathering of retirees is a bizarre confab disconnected from the prosaic". [9] In 2019, The Guardian writers ranked Escaped Alone the eighth-greatest theatrical work since 2000. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Top Girls</i>

Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It centres around Marlene, a career-driven woman who is heavily invested in women's success in business. The play examines the roles available to women in modern society, and what it means or takes for a woman to succeed. It also dwells heavily on the cost of ambition and the influence of Thatcherite politics on feminism.

A Number is a 2002 English play by Caryl Churchill. The story, set in the near future, is structured around the conflict between a father (Salter) and his sons – two of whom are clones of the first one. The play addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especially nature versus nurture. Many critics over the years have lauded A Number, arguing Churchill created a work of significant intellectual depth with effective economy of style.

<i>The Sea</i> (play)

The Sea is a 1973 play by Edward Bond. It is a comedy set in a small seaside village in rural East Anglia during the Edwardian period and draws from some of the themes of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It was well-received by critics.

Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The play has four characters, Harper, Young Joan, Joan, and Todd, and is based on the premise of a world in which everything in nature is at war. It is published by Nick Hern Books. While some critics have expressed reservations about the play's ending, many regard Far Away as one of Churchill's finest plays.

Amelda Brown is a British actress of stage, film, and television. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1980, and became known for her work in fringe theatre.

Linda Bassett is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's dinnerladies (1999), Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–11), Grandma's House (2010–12) and Call the Midwife (2015–present).

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? is a 2006 political play with eight scenes by Caryl Churchill. It addresses the application of power by the United States mostly since the Vietnam war. Critics' responses to the play are divided.

The Skriker is a 1994 play by Caryl Churchill that tells the story of an ancient fairy who, during the course of the play, transforms into a plethora of objects and people as it pursues Lily and Josie, two teenage mothers whom it befriends, manipulates, seduces and entraps. Whilst speaking English in its human incarnations, the Skriker’s own language consists of broken and fragmented word play. Blending naturalism, horror and magical realism, it is a story of love, loss and revenge. As with Churchill's A Mouthful of Birds (1986), the play explores the themes of post-natal psychosis and possession.

Blue Heart was written by Caryl Churchill and copyrighted in 1997. The play is two one act plays. The first play, Heart’s Desire, is about a family waiting on the arrival of their daughter Suzy. The second play Blue Kettle, is about a man named Derek who goes around telling women they're his mother because he was adopted at birth. The women believe him and truly find ways to tell him the way he is their son. Blue Heart is highly regarded by critics.

Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is a six-page, 10-minute play by British playwright Caryl Churchill, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza, and first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre on 6 February 2009. Churchill, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has said that anyone wishing to produce it may do so gratis, so long as they hold a collection for the people of Gaza at the end.

Caryl Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Celebrated for works such as Cloud 9 (1979), Top Girls (1982), Serious Money (1987), Blue Heart (1997), Far Away (2000), and A Number (2002), she has been described as "one of Britain's greatest poets of and innovators for the contemporary stage". In a 2011 dramatists' poll by The Village Voice, five out of the 20 polled writers listed Churchill as the greatest living playwright.

Robert Icke is an English writer and theatre director. He has been referred to as the "great hope of British theatre."

Love and Information is a play written by the British playwright Caryl Churchill. It first opened at the Royal Court Theatre in September 2012. It received many positive reviews from critics.

James Macdonald is a British theatre and film director who is best known for his work with contemporary writers such as Caryl Churchill. He was associate and deputy director of The Royal Court from 1992–2006. There he staged the premiere of Sarah Kane's Blasted (1995), her highly controversial debut which sparked a Newsnight debate on BBC Television. He also directed the premiere of Kane's Cleansed (1998) and 4.48 Psychosis which opened after her suicide.

Rules for Living is a dark comedy about family dysfunction and societal norms by Sam Holcroft. Holcroft explores coping with family dynamics and social constructs that limit behaviors through cognitive therapy. The play follows a family preparing for Christmas lunch and tensions begin to rise as they deal with family issues. Each movement, gesture, or voice is dictated over by the play's set of "rules" which the actors must follow to function correctly in Holcroft's world.

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is a play by British playwright Caryl Churchill written in 1976.

Small Island is a 2019 play by Helen Edmundson based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Andrea Levy. It tells the deeply connected stories of three people against the backdrop of the complex history of the United Kingdom and Jamaica. It premiered at the National Theatre in 2019 to critical acclaim.

Fen is a 1983 play by Caryl Churchill. While not as well known as Churchill works like Cloud 9 (1979) and Top Girls (1982), it has been praised by many critics.

Here We Go is a 2015 play by Caryl Churchill. Critics' reviews were generally positive.

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. is a 2019 series of plays by British playwright Caryl Churchill that were premiered together.

References

  1. ↑ Trueman, Matt (2016-01-29). "London Theater Review: Caryl Churchill's 'Escaped Alone'". Variety. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  2. ↑ Clapp, Susannah (2016-01-31). "Escaped Alone review – small talk and everyday terror from Caryl Churchill". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  3. ↑ Billington, Michael (2016-01-28). "Escaped Alone review – Caryl Churchill's wry chit-chat cradles catastrophe". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  4. ↑ Gilbert, Sophie (2017-02-21). "'Escaped Alone' Finds Comfort at the End of the World". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  5. ↑ Woodhead, Cameron (2019-06-02). "Review: Escaped Alone delves into lurid visions of global annihilation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  6. ↑ Wasserman, Jerry (2019-11-03). "Theatre review: It's the end of the World. Have another cup of tea". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  7. ↑ Lukowski, Andrzej (2019-09-26). "'Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.' review | Theatre in London". Time Out London. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  8. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (2016-01-29). "'Escaped Alone': Theater Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  9. ↑ Hunter, Mary Paula (2019-03-08). "Theater Review: "Escaped Alone" and "Come and Go" - Forms of Disconnection". The Arts Fuse. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  10. ↑ Billington, Michael; Soloski, Alexis; Love, Catherine; Fisher, Mark; Wiegand, Chris (2019-09-17). "The 50 best theatre shows of the 21st century". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-06-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.