Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #747080 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781559360975
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Booklist
British playwright Churchill has always shown an unusual knack for combining striking theatrical experimentation and remarkably detailed re-creation of everyday life. Rarely, however, has she woven the two strands of her writing as tightly together as in this play in which one character, the Skriker, speaks long passages of Joycean (specifically, Finnegans Wake-ish) prose ("Heard her boast beast a roast beef eater, daughter could spin span spick and spun the lowest form of wheat straw into gold"), while the two others, Liz and Josie, both teenage girls, speak a very contemporary brand of English. This startling juxtaposition allows Churchill simultaneously to explore contemporary attitudes about the homeless and insane and tell a variation of the folktale about the malevolent, magical being that tries to trick a young woman out of her firstborn. The resulting play is rich, beautiful, and moving, though it may frustrate those who like their theater plain and simple. It's also a delight, whether on page or stage, for those who like to puzzle through dense, difficult texts. Jack Helbig

Review
Caryl Churchill is the author of over 20 plays, including Cloud Nine, Icecream, Traps, Shorts, Top Girls, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, and Mad Forest, as well as numerous radio and television scripts, which have been performed frequently and world wide. Her extraordinary new play is The Skriker. It combines English folk tales with scenes from modern urban life. The Skriker is "a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged", that searches for love and revenge as it pursues two young women from Lancaster to London, changing its shape with each encounter. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author
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.

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.

Customer Reviews

Magic and Modernity
"The Skriker" is a wonderous piece of drama. Melding English folklore with a contemporary environment, Churchill has managed to create a terrifying dramatic "fairy tale." The story revolves around two teenage girls, their pregnancies, and the Skriker, a shapeshifter and evil spirit who plays a unique Rumpelstiltskinian role. Bristling with dramatic possibilities, due in no small part to the countless creatures with names like Rawheadandbloodybones and Black Annis that roam the play, this important work commands a unique theatrical excitement. A full five-star ranking is reserved for Churchill's "Cloud Nine," a play of truly remarkable ingenuity in its handling of the sexual revolution and its consequences. Yet the Skriker stands tall at four and a half stars, basking in its fierce, modern intelligence.

Churchill's Finest Work
I believe The Skriker is Churchill's finest play, and I've read them all and seen a number of them. She has woven many of her recurring themes and motifs in this play to dazzling effect: magic and myth, time and timelessness, gender and womanhood, mothering, and the power of the theatre to transform. The play is witty and somber, reassuring and threatening, and brilliantly unpredictable throughout.

One of my most favorite plays ever
I got to work on the production of this play at the NYSF/Public Theatre many years ago, and it was one of the best plays I'd ever worked on. When I read the text, I can still hear the actors' voices saying the lines. Fantastic. I wish I had a video of it, although it would not be able to capture the bizarrity and wonderfulness of the production.