{"title":"Books by Caryl Churchill","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781848422889","title":"Love and Information","description":"Someone sneezes. Someone can't get a signal. Someone shares a secret. Someone won't answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone's not ready to talk. Someone is her brother's mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone's never felt like this before.   In this fast moving kaleidoscope, more than a hundred characters try to make sense of what they know.   Caryl Churchill's play Love and Information was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2012.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205697175730,"sku":"9781848422889","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848422889_0c17dcfa-19fa-41d5-a7c5-9533d211f90e.jpg?v=1786029342"},{"product_id":"9781848425491","title":"Escaped Alone","description":"“I’m walking down the street and there’s a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I’ve seen before.”Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe.   Caryl Churchill's play Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald. It was named Best Play at the 2017 Writers' Guild Awards.   'Caryl Churchill never does the same thing twice. Each play in her exquisite portfolio is an experiment in form. Her works are uniquely individual creations' The Times","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205798887602,"sku":"9781848425491","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848425491.jpg?v=1786034013"},{"product_id":"9780413554802","title":"Top Girls","description":"Marlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights. It was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982. \"Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind.\" (John Peter, Sunday Times)","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289333117301,"sku":"9780413554802","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780413554802_3e559815-9c83-43cb-b055-304a6085eccf.jpg?v=1786014209"},{"product_id":"9780413566706","title":"Churchill Plays 1","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Traps, a set of characters meet themselves and their pasts to create \"plenty of sinewy lines and joyous juxtapostions\" (Plays and Players); Vinegar Tom \"is set in the world of seventeenth-century witchcraft, but it speaks, through its striking images and its plethora of ironic contradictions, of and to this century...\" (Tribune); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is set during the Civil War and \"unflinchingly shows the intolerance that was the obverse side of the demand for common justice. Deftly, it sketches in the kind of social conditions.. that led to hunger for revolution...The play has an austere eloquence that precisely matches its subject.\" (The Guardian) Cloud Nine sheds light on some of the British Empire's repressed dark side and is \"a marvelous play - sometimes scurrilous, always observed with wicked accuracy, and ultimately, surprisingly, rather moving. It plunges straight to the heart of the endless convolutions of sexual mores...and does so with acrobatic wit.\" (Guardian) Owners:\"I was in an old woman's flat when a young man offering her money to move came round, that was one of the starting points of the play\" (Caryl Churchill).\u003cbr\u003eThe plays in this volume represent the best of Churchill's writing up to and including her emergence onto the international theatre scene with Cloud Nine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289333969269,"sku":"9780413566706","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780413566706_98ab0fce-3f90-46d7-b00f-5ab0c421d9a8.jpg?v=1786014211"},{"product_id":"9780413764904","title":"Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith an introduction by Graham Whybrow, literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre, this anthology collects the defining plays of the 1980s and 1990s in one volume - Top Girls 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' (The Guardian) Hysteria 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' (The Sunday Times) Blasted 'Her dialogue is both sparse and stunning. They will call her mad, but then they said that about Strindberg' (Mail on Sunday) Shopping and F\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eing 'A real coup de theatre' (Evening Standard) The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'The most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist ...a born storyteller' (New York Times)The result is a collection of \"must reads\" that's excellent value for students and theatre fans alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289710932341,"sku":"9780413764904","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780413764904.jpg?v=1786014246"},{"product_id":"9780573030307","title":"Escaped Alone","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"I'm walking down the street and there's a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I've seen before.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThree old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James MacDonald.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292095295861,"sku":"9780573030307","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780573030307_af1bb303-5e69-4849-b89e-8e5007e0db88.jpg?v=1786015120"},{"product_id":"9780573130137","title":"Top Girls","description":"Marlene has been promoted to managing director of a London employment agency and is celebrating. The symbolic luncheon is attended by women in legend or history who offer perspectives on maternity and ambition. In a time warp, these ladies are also her co-workers, clients, and relatives. Marlene, like her famous guests, has had to pay a price to ascend from proletarian roots to the executive suite: she has become, figuratively speaking, a male oppressor and even coaches female clients on adopting odious male traits. Marlene has also abandoned her illegitimate and dull-witted daughter. Her emotional and sexual life has become as barren as Lady Macbeth's.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292778934645,"sku":"9780573130137","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780573130137_4b84cbe5-cd97-4765-b925-8223e2ab4de6.jpg?v=1786015178"},{"product_id":"9781839040269","title":"What If If Only","description":"'Make me happen'Your partner's died, could things have been different?Caryl Churchill's short play What If If Only premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2021, directed by James Macdonald.   This edition also includes the resonant and surreal short piece, Air.   'Caryl Churchill has remade the landscape of contemporary drama – and earned herself a place among the greats' Guardian","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307926466933,"sku":"9781839040269","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781839040269_d012971a-aa17-4ed5-b24e-1ca0f8ae7556.jpg?v=1786027874"},{"product_id":"9781854592750","title":"The Skriker","description":"An extraordinary collision of ancient fairytale and fractured urban England.   In a broken world, two girls meet an extraordinary creature. The Skriker is a shapeshifter and death portent. She can be an old woman, a child, a young man. She is a faerie come from the Underworld to pursue and entrap them, through time and space, through this world and her own.   Caryl Churchill's play The Skriker was originally produced at the National Theatre, London, in 1994.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308062126453,"sku":"9781854592750","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854592750_3c14ca1d-c296-4bb9-a499-3271d7e19809.jpg?v=1786029628"},{"product_id":"9781848426009","title":"Blue Heart","description":"Two exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one-act plays from one of the UK’s leading playwrights.   Heart’s Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter’s return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions.   Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek’s plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus.   In Caryl Churchill’s ever-inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships.   Blue Heart was first performed at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in August 1997 in a touring co-production by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre.   This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its premiere, in a co-production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308331807093,"sku":"9781848426009","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848426009_64e57ee8-6d18-47f0-863f-8e4f964236a0.jpg?v=1786029424"},{"product_id":"9781848425194","title":"Here We Go","description":"A short play about death by Caryl Churchill.   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?Caryl Churchill's play Here We Go was premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2015.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308453671285,"sku":"9781848425194","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848425194_9beae9f1-261c-4ba3-a88e-27693ba55e12.jpg?v=1786029401"},{"product_id":"9781854595409","title":"Caryl Churchill Plays: Four","description":"The fourth volume of the collected plays of one of the best playwrights alive.   Written over a period of ten years and evincing an extraordinary range of topics and techniques, this fourth volume of Caryl Churchill's collected plays confirms her standing as a playwright who is 'amongst the best half-dozen now writing' (The Times).   This volume includes:Hotel (Schauspielhaus, Hannover, 1997), an innovative theatre piece combining music, voices and dance, with a text by Caryl Churchill and music by Orlando Gough.   This is a Chair (Royal Court Theatre, 1997), a short play about the surreal nature of modern life.   Blue Heart (Out of Joint \u0026amp; Royal Court Theatre, 1997), two linked one-act plays, both startlingly innovative, exploring the underpinnings of family relationships.   Far Away (Royal Court, 2000), a brilliantly unsettling play about conflict and its unsettling effect on our lives and humanity.   A Number (Royal Court, 2002), a fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture.   Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Royal Court, 2006),examining US foreign policy and international power politics through the lens of an intense personal relationship.   A Dream Play (National Theatre, London, 2005), a spare and resonant version of August Strindberg's 1901 masterpiece.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308550762869,"sku":"9781854595409","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854595409_324a18ca-74ed-4468-886c-d80d81572582.jpg?v=1786029654"},{"product_id":"9781848428782","title":"Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.","description":"‘I can see her just. Most people can’t see her at all.’A girl made of glass. Gods and murders. A serial killer's friends. And a secret in a bottle. Four stories by Caryl Churchill.   Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, London, in September 2019, in a production directed by James Macdonald.   'Caryl Churchill has remade the landscape of contemporary drama – and earned herself a place among the greats' Guardian","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308586774901,"sku":"9781848428782","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848428782_4dbb0b9d-3306-491b-9d09-acca21b1c658.jpg?v=1786029509"},{"product_id":"9781854593429","title":"Caryl Churchill","description":"\u003cp\u003eIncludes:\u003ci\u003eIce Cream, Mad Forest, The Shriker, Lives of the Great Poisoners\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Mouthful of Birds,\u003c\/i\u003e as well as an introduction by the author.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308623180149,"sku":"9781854593429","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854593429_05a486e0-b1b7-4864-85c9-e085277946c5.jpg?v=1786029633"},{"product_id":"9781854597434","title":"A Number","description":"A fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture.   Bernard thought he was an only child. One day he learns the shocking truth: he is just one of a number of clones. Together, he and his father confront epic questions of identity, intimacy and belonging.   Caryl Churchill's play A Number pushes the boundaries of science and ethics with an astonishing twist on the dynamics of the father\/son relationship. It was originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2002, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308692746613,"sku":"9781854597434","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854597434_910eecee-6aea-493c-9a26-4473afb7637c.jpg?v=1786029676"},{"product_id":"9781350028579","title":"Top Girls","description":"\u003cp\u003eMarlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Since its premiere in 1982, \u003ci\u003eTop Girls\u003c\/i\u003e has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill’s play prompts us to question our notions of women's success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women's choices and restrictions regarding career and family.\u003cbr\u003eThis new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e·        A chronology of the play and the playwright’s life and work\u003cbr\u003e·        an introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created\u003cbr\u003e·        a succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece\u003cbr\u003e·        an analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text\u003cbr\u003e·        a bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312210555253,"sku":"9781350028579","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781350028579_b01e8f63-d003-4d8d-9e35-9ce7e877fad4.jpg?v=1786018015"},{"product_id":"9781854590909","title":"Cloud Nine","description":"A landmark play about sexual politics in colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, in which all our assumptions about sex and gender are stunningly exploded.   Set in both colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, Cloud Nine is about relationships – between women and men, men and men, women and women. It is about sex, work, mothers, Africa, power, children, grandmothers, politics, and money.   Caryl Churchill's play Cloud Nine was first staged by Joint Stock and premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979. It has since been staged all over the world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313089393013,"sku":"9781854590909","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854590909_3846d5e5-4e36-465b-91d8-13324570206d.jpg?v=1786029607"},{"product_id":"caryl-churchill-shorts","title":"Caryl Churchill: Shorts","description":"Ten short plays by Caryl Churchill, written for stage, radio and TV, selected and introduced by the author.   This collection of short plays by one of our leading playwrights opens up a little-known aspect of her writing, and demonstrates her remarkable versatility and breadth of concern.   Abortive (Radio 3, 1971)The After-Dinner Joke (BBC TV, 1978)The Hospital at the Time of the RevolutionHot Fudge (Royal Court Theatre, 1989)The Judge's Wife (BBC TV, 1972)Lovesick (Radio 3, 1967)Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (Radio 3, 1971)Schreber's Nervous Illness (Radio 3, 1972)SeagullsThree More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly Theatre, 1980)The volume also includes an introduction by the author.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490271830389,"sku":"9781854590855","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854590855.jpg?v=1786442158"},{"product_id":"far-away","title":"Far Away","description":"A brilliant and unsettling play from one of the UK's leading dramatists.   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.   Caryl Churchill's play Far Away is a howl of anguish at the increasing – and increasingly accepted – levels of inhumanity in a world seemingly perpetually involved in conflict.   The play was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London, in November 2000.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490286346613,"sku":"9781854597441","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781854597441.jpg?v=1786442173"},{"product_id":"cloud-nine","title":"Cloud Nine","description":"A new edition of the landmark play about sexual politics, published alongside the National Theatre's major revival in 2026.   Set in both colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, Cloud Nine is about relationships – between women and men, men and men, women and women. It is about sex, work, mothers, Africa, power, children, grandmothers, politics, and money.   Caryl Churchill's play Cloud Nine was first staged by Joint Stock and premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979. It has since been staged all over the world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57695186714997,"sku":"9781839046087","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-caryl-churchill.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}