Far Away

by Caryl Churchill

Far Away opens on a girl questioning her aunt about having seen her uncle hitting people with an iron bar. Several years later, the whole world is at war - including birds and animals. The girl has returned to her aunt to take refuge and begins to describe her journey: "There were piles of bodies and if you stopped to find out there was one killed by coffee or one killed by pins, they were killed by heroin, petrol, chainsaws, hairspray, bleach, foxgloves, the smell of smoke was where we were burning the grass that wouldn't serve..."

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, School, College, Read For School

38 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Caryl Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, dramatisation of the abuses of power, and exploration of sexual politics.[1] She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and one of world theatre's most influential writers.

Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of 'Epic theatre' to explore issues of gender and sexuality. From A Mouthful of Birds (1986) onwards, she began to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Antonin Artaud with his 'Theatre of Cruelty'. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterises her work as postmodernist.

Prizes and awards

Churchill has received much recognition, including the following awards:

1958 Sunday Times/National Union of Students Drama Festival Award Downstairs
1961 Richard Hillary Memorial Prize
1981 Obie Award for Playwriting, Cloud Nine
1982 Obie Award for Playwriting, Top Girls
1983 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (runner-up), Top Girls
1984 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Fen
1987 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy of the Year, Serious Money
1987 Obie Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
1987 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Serious Money
1988 Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
2001 Obie Sustained Achievement Award
2010 Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Plays

Downstairs (1958)
You've No Need to be Frightened (1959?)
Having a Wonderful Time (1960)
Easy Death (1960)
The Ants, radio drama (1962)
Lovesick, radio drama (1969)
Identical Twins (1960)
Abortive, radio drama (1971)
Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen, radio drama (1971)
Owners (1972)
Schreber's Nervous Illness, radio drama (1972) – based on Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (written 1972)
The Judge's Wife, radio drama (1972)
Moving Clocks Go Slow, (1973)
Turkish Delight, television drama (1973)
Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) [7]
Vinegar Tom (1976)
Traps (1976)
The After-Dinner Joke, television drama (1978)
Seagulls (written 1978)
Cloud Nine (1979)
Three More Sleepless Nights (1980)
Top Girls (1982)
Crimes, television drama (1982)
Fen (1983)
Softcops (1984)
A Mouthful of Birds (1986)
A Heart's Desire (1987)[18]
Serious Money (1987)
Ice Cream (1989)
Hot Fudge (1989)
Mad Forest (1990)
Lives of the 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 tragedy
A Number (2002)
A Dream Play (2005) – translation of August Strindberg's play
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006)
Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (2009)
Love and Information (2012)
Ding Dong the Wicked (2013)
Here We Go (play) (2015)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Ch...

Reviews

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's going to take YEARS to understand this fully.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, that feeling of when you finish a long (lonnnngggg) book and can't wait to devour everything in sight...so you start with something small, just to keep your confidence up. But make no mistake: though this play be short, it is a motherfucking heartbomb.

I think it works best if you have no idea what's happening going in, so don't read any reviews -- just get your hands on it, somehow. It's an abstract allegory, but one of those really excellent ones with a lot of personal footholds. I like my interpretation, of a childhood trauma creating complete chaos later in life, with that line about "people thinking it's a house" acting as a symbol for false security, with the house acting as point of origin not of the war, but of Joan's psychological scars ---- but yours should be your own. Hope to find a class solid enough to teach this one to, someday.

Excellent.

[Nathaniel Voll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far Away demonstrates the ways in which systems of power, violence and privilege are normalized from a young age. A master of the three-act-play, Churchill begins the play in an accessible and tangible "real" that is not unlike our world, with a girl and her aunt in a bedroom. From there Churchill turns up the abstract, as the girl grows to become a part of the systems of violence pervasive in her world, making hats for prisoners to wear on their execution days. In the third act, the aunt and the girl's husband argue about what side of the war each other are on, revealing that the whole world is entirely divided - by nationality, profession, species, and even law of physics. The whole world of the play is divided in a binary war of staunch conviction and difference that consumes the world of the play to the point that no one is safe, and there is no respite from the world's conflict. And Churchill does a fantastic job of ensuring that that world doesn't seem so "far away."

[massmarketbareback · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh i get it now

[George K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Δεύτερο θεατρικό έργο στη σειρά που διαβάζω, εντελώς διαφορετικό σε θεματολογία και γραφή σε σχέση με τα τρία προηγούμενα θεατρικά που έτυχε να πέσουν στα χέρια μου φέτος. Από την μια, μου κίνησε το ενδιαφέρον από την αρχή και το κράτησε μέχρι το τέλος, έτσι περίεργο και παράδοξο όπως ήταν, από την άλλη όμως δεν μπορώ να πω ότι με ξετρέλανε κιόλας. Μου φάνηκε αρκετά αφαιρετικό ως προς τα σκηνικά και το υπόβαθρο της ιστορίας, αλλά και πολύ σύντομο. Φυσικά μιλάμε για ένα έργο τίγκα στις μεταφορές και τις αλληγορίες, το οποίο απαιτεί από τον αναγνώστη ανοιχτό μυαλό και φαντασία. Είναι ένα θεατρικό έργο που ίσως διαβάσω ξανά στο μέλλον, μπας και πιάσω περισσότερα πράγματα. Πάντως θα ήθελα πολύ να δω μια θεατρική παράσταση βασισμένη στο συγκεκριμένο έργο.

[Alyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best representation of a play about war without being about a particular war. It was recommended to me by the director of another war play, a recommendation that came out of a conversation about awareness. It is political without being pointed, though there are clear allusions to WWII, at least visually. The point, though, is that war is not far away. War is not limited by borders or species. What seems like an absurd conversation about deer, elephants, and crocodiles hits hard by the time you reach the last page.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish that there were a way to give this less than one star...maybe half a star. Why not write "war is bad" ... google "Nazi" or "holocaust" for further explanation? It does make you think, but not any more so than watching the news for 5 minutes...and this read was a half an hour of my life that I'm never getting back. Booh, hiss...I shake my head...I bite my thumb!

[Emily Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was just planning on quickly skimming Churchill’s plays (Far Away and This is a Chair) because it’s what we’re discussing in my seminars this week but it’s essay season so needed to focus more on that. However, to my absolute delight, I got so invested in reading about these plays that I decided to completely switch up my plan and write on Far Away instead! I’ve been planning on writing my essay on Woolf who we studied weeks ago (and whom I absolutely adore) so this was a real curveball!

Admittedly this has left me with very little time to research and plan before I start writing oops! However I was just absolutely struck by the genius of Caryl Churchill and how Far Away, a politically infused dystopia, can be applied to any modern conflict (the links to the Bosnian War are particularly interesting.) I think the play really acts as a warning for what can happen when all sense of moral and social responsibility is lost and terror takes over. I’m really looking forward to writing on this!!

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

this play changed me greatly. i had the pleasure of trying to direct this beautiful work. i think its masterful, and asks a question or demands a question of its audience/ reader. it asks them to wake up to the world around them, to not be complacent in the terrors they are active participants in. lets the world destroy itself, and then where will we be?
"i didnt know if the river would drown me or help me swim when you first step in you dont know whats going to happen, the water laps around your ankles in any case." (please forgive my memory Caryl if i didnt get it right!)

[eva ⚘ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this play for the first time last april but wasn't able to comprehend it so i tossed it away and never thought about it again.

however, i had to revisit it this week bc it was compulsory reading for a course and oh god everything made sense now... my first experience with this book is exactly the definition of “right book, wrong time.”

but now!!!! it was sooo impactful now. the allegories for violence, war, politics etc were extremely striking. oh dear god.

like, it opens like a fairytale, then we have the hat makers who made me draw connections with howl's moving castle but then... BOOM

i won't spoil anything but whatever you're thinking, that's not it!!!!

an amazing play...

[Jess Esa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dystopia at its finest.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried

[Brittney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was supposed to read this for my play reading and discussion class but due to the spring show and other circumstance we cut it from our list. Still wanting to read it since it is so short and written in relatively simple language I did.
I have no idea what this play I about! I was think WWII but as it went on I wasn't sure and then I thought about it being about spies or something but by the end o had not clue. Kinda wishing we could still have a class discussion about it so I can make sense of it.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of a strange book, and I don't know what to make of it. The book is a 3-act play which takes place over a number of years.

It's a strange world where it appears that law and order have broken down. One is either with the program, or at risk of being consumed by it. There is no mention of authority, but there is fear of it. The book also ends strangely and suddenly after a long speech by Joan, one of the characters we meet in the first act.

[Ocean Dattani · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite of Caryl Churchills so far. Not that that's saying much but still something.

I preferred the first section to the last, it felt very clever and interesting espacially the hat motif. But the last few monologues kinda spelled out everything they just told us through the play? So, it kind of felt pointless and like the second half was working against the first half. Maybe that's the point, but it annoyed me.

[Lukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love obscurity. I love the insane. This is what the play is to me. Are we far away from this future? I don't know. I keep imagining how we are not so far away from a world portrayed in these dystopian portrayals. I'd love to see this or direct this one day. I guess this will mark my journey into Caryl Churchill.

[TreforL · Rating 1 out of 5]

This short dystopian play was shoddy pseudo-intellectual nonsense. One moment there's an atrocity being committed in the back yard, the next you have people making fancy hats for others facing execution. Crocodiles, a river and the weather apparently take sides in a weird war. Much as I admire Churchill, this was not her finest hour.

[Nijhia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a script, but i did not really enjoy it. It follows a character through their life. Its basically how she saw a very evil act, then how she was a hatmaker and she meets some guy.

It is an okay read, i am sure that it is an okay play but seems boring to me.

[Labis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Έως ότου το δω στο θέατρο 2 αστέρια και πολλά του είναι...

[Victor Morosoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sur une vingtaine de pages on a un premier "acte" qui donne des sueurs froides et une suite où tout dérape. 4/5

[Sabrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plato was right, theatre is the worst

[Leylamaría · Rating 5 out of 5]

JOAN
Why did you have me stay if you’ve got this secret going on?

HARPER
The lorry should have come yesterday. It won’t happen again while you’re here.

JOAN
It can now because I know. You don’t have to stop for me. I could help uncle in the shed and look after them.

HARPER
No, he has to do it himself. But thank you for offering, that’s very kind. So after all that excitement do you think you could go back to bed?

JOAN
Why was uncle hitting them?

—

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Jenny Gladheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg kan ikke tro at jeg leste denne sammen med Simon Stephens i en workshop forrige uke. MANNEN HAR VUNNET EN TONY og er venn med MORIARTY!!!

Jeg må innrømme jeg aldri har lest en annen tekst som har en scene der hovedkarakteren har "majored in hats" på college, for å deretter lage sinnsykt store hatter slik at de tres over hodene på landssvikere som skal offentlig henrettes.

Tror jeg enda trenger litt tid til å tenke på denne teksten, derfor får den 4 stjerner.

[Katie Proctor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I much preferred this one to This is a Chair! I found that it had the elements of surrealism that the other play had but not to such an excessive extent, and I found that really interesting. I think that Churchill is probably not totally my thing but definitely glad to have read this. Very cool from a theatrical standpoint too! I’m really looking forward to talking about this play in seminar - I think the premise of everything being at war including nature and the distrust that that forces people to experience is fascinating.

[KW · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You make beauty and it disappears, I love that.”

[Jonathan Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. The first scene is masterful. The only criticism I would have is that I wished there was slightly more exploration between the naturalism of the start and the heady abstraction of the end. Nevertheless, Churchill’s work never fails to astound.

[joshua sorensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

the high school drama student in me couldnt get past the lack of stage directions — they can help inform character!!! not having them to be ~artsy~ is, in my opinion, pretty stupid!!!

[Tam Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

I understand the point Churchill is making in this play, but it's so short that instead of being convinced by an argument, you're essentially just told how things are with no context or explanations. It's confusing, disorientating, and the ending explains nothing. Maybe her writing just isn't for me, but I really didn't enjoy this.

[tizijpp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex: … y el verde simboliza la libertad.
Yo: Ahí te has puesto muy lorquiano.
Carlos: Claro. Franco también iba de verde.
Yo: Y Vox.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm....