Caryl Churchill

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Caryl Churchill (* 3. September 1938 in London ) is an English author of dramas . She is known for her use of unrealistic techniques and for her feminist themes.

Life

Churchill was born in London . During the Second World War , her family emigrated to Montreal , Canada , where they attended the Trafalgar School for Girls. She returned to England to attend university and graduated from Oxford University in 1960 with a degree in English literature . It was there that she began her literary career writing three plays for student theater groups: Downstairs , You've No Need to be Frightened, and Having a Wonderful Time .

In 1961 she married David Harter, an Oxford lawyer, and raised three sons. She began writing short radio pieces for the BBC . These included The Ants (1962), Not, Not, Not, Not Enough Oxygen (1971), and Schreber's Nervous Illness (1972).

In 1972 Churchill wrote Owners , her first play for the stage. Your socialist beliefs are very clear in the play. In it, she criticizes the values ​​that most capitalists take for granted: be aggressive, move forward, be successful. From 1974 to 1975 she was resident dramatist at the Royal Court Theater . She later began collaborating with theater groups such as Joint Stock and Monstrous Regiment (a feminist theater association), who used extensive workshops to develop new plays. Churchill continued to use improvisation workshops to develop some of her pieces.

The first piece of hers that received widespread attention was Cloud 9 (1979), which is set in part in a British colony during the Victorian era . She examines the relationships associated with colonization and lets women play male roles and vice versa, in order to achieve funny and educational effects.

Churchill's writing became less and less constrained by the conventions of realism . In doing so, she also further developed the feminist themes. A female-only play, Top Girls (1982) is focused on Marlene, who sacrificed her home and family life in order to succeed in the business world. Half of the action takes place during a dinner at which Marlene meets historical and fictional women who have had success in the male world, but always at a certain price.

In The Skriker (1994) Churchill used an associative dream logic that some critics found nonsensical. The piece, a visionary exploration of modern urban life, follows Skriker, a kind of northern goblin, in his search for love and revenge, as he pursues two young women as far as London, changing his shape with every encounter.

Serious Money (1987) is a verse drama that casts a satirical look at the stock market. It was enthusiastically received, partly because it came out just after the stock market crash of 1987.

Her piece A Number (2002) deals with the subject of human cloning .

Churchill also wrote television plays for the BBC. These and some of her radio pieces were later adapted for the stage.

Churchill was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2009. She was nominated for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2016.

Works (selection)

  • Downstairs (1958)
  • Having a Wonderful Time (1960)
  • Owners (1972)
  • Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)
  • Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976)
  • Vinegar Tom (1976)
  • Traps (1977)
  • Cloud 9 (1979)
  • Top Girls (1982)
  • Fen (1983)
  • Softcops (1984)
  • A Mouthful of Birds (1986)
  • Serious Money (1987)
  • Ice Cream (1989)
  • Mad Forrest: A Play from Romania (1990)
  • Lives of Great Poisoners (1991)
  • The Skriker (1994)
  • Blue Heart (1997)
  • Hotel (1997)
  • This is a Chair (1999)
  • Far Away (2000)
  • Thyestes (2001) - translation of Seneca's play
  • A Number (2002).
  • Drunk Enough To Say I Love You (2006)
  • Seven Jewish Children - a Play for Gaza (2009)

literature

  • Geraldine Cousin: Churchill, the playwright . London: Methuen Drama, 1989
  • Karl-Heinz Stoll: Postmodern Feminism: Caryl Churchill's Dramas . Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1995
  • Anke Bartels: Judith's successful sister: the plays of Caryl Churchill in a theater and social-historical context . Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1996
  • Ute Berns: Micropolitics in contemporary English drama: studies on the dramatization of social power and exclusion mechanisms in Pinter, Keeffe and Churchill . Trier: WVT, 1997
  • Karin Uecker: Does laughter have a gender? : On the characterization of comical female characters in plays by contemporary female authors . Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2002 [ Cloud Nine ]

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Honorary Members: Caryl Churchill. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 8, 2019 .
  2. ^ Finalists Announced for the 24th Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Lyrikzeitung.com, May 27, 2015, accessed June 3, 2015 .
  3. ^ Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children , The Guardian, February 26, 2009, accessed May 9, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Churchill, Caryl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English author of dramas
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH London