Escaped Alone

by Caryl Churchill

“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.

Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

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

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2016

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

[Anna Faelens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in a train. Perhaps not the best place to fully appreciate it, but I will re-read it as many times as necessary to finally understand what the heck is going on. Apart from the whole not understanding business, it left an impression on me. I can’t wait to analyse this in class and I’d love to see a performance one day.

[emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think you have to see it on stage to really appreciate it.

[Mayabee]

chaos

[fiona ☁️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for uni

✨️ 3.5

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most inventive I've seen her been with dialogue.

Tripping af. Cat monologue is hysterical.

Edit: 3/23/20 re-read. Well, this reads differently in the middle of a pandemic! She's as good as it gets for a playwright, combining banal family horror with gargantuan fears of modern life in wildly innovative form. Every play takes bold new risks. The thing that hits home most right now about Escaped Alone is the everyday nature of it—the apocalypse happens (maybe) and what do we do? We sip tea in our backyards as the world crumbles. We sing. We make jokes. We maybe die. And there's a lot of rage. Brilliant.

[Anouk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't understand the ending tho

[Maria Cullimore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without having the text alive on stage, it is almost impossible to give an accurate rating. Furthermore, the pace of the text on the page gives the sense that there is a definite space for a layer to be added in performance. Still, it us well worth a read as it raises some worrying and interesting points about the way we conduct society today.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimme Caryl describing total civilisation collapse any time.

[Jena Osselaer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

The cat monologue was really something

[india-mae · Rating 2 out of 5]

one of my most humbling moments at university was having to describe what I thought this was about to a class

[Saffron Irons · Rating 4 out of 5]

uhm what the actual fuck - i’m so impressed that this came out of someone’s brain but i have no clue what to say at my seminar

[TreforL · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short play is a slight offering but has its merits. Four women aged over 70 sit in a back garden and half-listen, half-talk in half-ideas. The cascade of short lines leads to a long monologue at the end of each scene, 'Mrs J' repeatedly rambling about a post-apocalyptic world that has just enough familiar touches to be disturbing.

Sally rants obsessively about her hatred of cats. It's revealed that Vi has killed her husband and served six years in prison; she has a lengthy monologue about that. Lena's is the most realistic and the most haunting, because she is losing interest in life and her mind is starting to grinding to a halt.

More sad than funny, but both, this harks back to the theatre of the absurd, with the resolute bleakness of Beckett, coupled with a wandering conversation that says little but threatens to say more and narrowly avoids saying nothing.

[Rubadingyrapids · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant ! I’m sure even better on stage as it can be difficult to fully grasp who is speaking when and who is speaking to whom etc.

[adela · Rating 4 out of 5]

mujeres!

[BrittIsReading · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sure my lack of context has something to do with it, and maybe the stage production is better than just the text on paper. But I'm pretty sure that reading this is something like having a stroke

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caryl Churchill evokes the mood of the apocalypse within the confines of a suburban back garden in Middle England. Well, if anyone can achieve dystopic conversation over tea and biscuits, Churchill can. Escaped Alone seems to be an examination of the paranoia of our technologically obsessed and rapidly changing world upon the generation who preceded the iPhone and Facebook. There is a striking power in four women over the age of 70 being given a theatrical voice in this age of doomsday news broadcasts and superfast broadband, allowing acknowledgement of the opinions of the aging population who people this world of Twitter and iPlayer. In short, I cannot wait to see it performed on stage next month at the Royal Court!

[Ronja (queer-is-the-universe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrible rage ...

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with this one. I had heard of Caryl Churchill before and had been recommended her plays. I found the writing style very challenging to wrap my head around, and often found myself reading the words but not taking it in. I understand that the style of writing replicates that of a 'Mothers Meeting' where each member interrupts each other but I couldn't find where each line connected sometimes.

Something I did like about the play was Vi's monologue about not being able to feel comfortable in a kitchen anymore. We don't know the full story behind her husbands death, only that she was the cause. It was an interesting looking into someone's life after committing a crime, you feel the need to sympathise but know that she might not be justified in her actions.

I also did like Mrs J's monologues and their metaphorical parallels to real world events. It is laid out like a post apocalyptic setting but has strong links to current events. Especially because the play was written in 2016 which was around Brexit.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the play but would like to see how it would be directed on stage.

[namatayi · Rating 1 out of 5]

im taking a module in third year called eco theatre, we are studying plays that have ecological themes and this one we'll be discussing in class next week ?(unfortunatly i wont be able to be there.)

i'm curious what people will have to say about it though which is why its sad i cant go. i dont think the book said anything of great substance apart from the times the scene would end and there would be a big paragraph about the way in which the world is heading - the awful way in which the world is heading. aside from that it is split conversations ing but the audience- the reader (i wont speak for the visual interpreters i imagine seeing this preformed is wildly different to reading it.) well, we have no clue. i was searching for so much more than what was given to me.

maybe i'm interpreting it wrong and i regret missing the class because now i wont know what everyone elses thoughts on the book are. i know caryl is regarded as such a great playwright because three lectures have put her work on the reading list this year for three separate modules but at least in this specific book i dont necessarily see it. sorry caryl.

[Juan Fer · Rating 3 out of 5]

ES: Es una de las obras de teatro más raras a las que me he enfrentado nunca. El argumento es muy sencillo: cuatro mujeres de 70 años hablan de la vida, y del cambio generacional que sienten en sus vidas con la tecnología o la sociedad, incluso en la comunicación entre ellas, donde el espectador entiende que la empatía ya no funciona como antes.
Caryl recrea un ambiente apocalíptico con un aire a nostalgia sobre los buenos momentos, pero que evidentemente, está todo avocado al cambio.
Volveré a leerla. Estoy seguro de que tiene segundas lecturas.

EN: This play is one of the weirdest I've ever read. The plot is simple: four seventy-year old women talk about life, and the generational change they are facing with technology or society, even with communication among them. The audience will notice that empathy doesn't work now as it used to.
Caryl recreates an apocaliptic setting with a nostalgic feeling. But all the events seem to be on a slippery slope.
I'll read it again. I'm sure it will be worthy.

[୨୧ A Literate Taxidermy ୨୧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"MRS J: Terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible
rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible
rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible
rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible
rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible rage terrible
rage"

i love this so much, it's perfect, confusing and perfect, the idle talk, tea and backyard, as the world burns to the ground, the buildings migrate, insane blind mole people drown when rain falls, and the thirsty drinks until they die, and the starving watch cooking programs on phones donated by charity.

but in the backyard beyond the white fence, we don't talk about cats, the table is going to be sold, all kitchens reminds you of that kitchen, you don't understand who is having a conversation with who, who is answering to what, elliptical idle conversations.

[Sophie Bloor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is an important play about capitalist dystopia and alternate realities not implausible. The absurdist tone worked for me and Churchill succeeded in creating a blissfully terrifying warning for our future. Annoyingly, this would have been way better live as the character's easy report, finishing each other's sentences etc, would sometimes confuse me on paper and I missed completely Sally's narrative besides the cats. It was short, punchy and I liked the focus on elderly women's voices, which is a perspective all too often forgotten. Also the juxtaposition (English lit essay impending lol) between a quiet, neighbourly tea party and thoughts about the end of the world worked in creating a satirical tone, mocking the capitalist society we live in. The play offer's no answers but I don't think Churchill, for one moment, ever intended to provide these.

[Lydia Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as preparation for my Third Year English Literature University Course on tragedy. After reading this play, I was initially quite confused. I found it to be engaging, it’s language captivating, and yet I couldn’t for the life of me work out what it was all supposed to mean. I suppose this can be said for a lot of good art: it often goes over peoples heads. Mama less, after spending some time researching play and its perceptions, I was extremely fascinated by Churchill’s centralisation of a group of ageing women; a group and so often marginalised and ignored by society. I can’t wait to study this play next term, and properly understand Mrs J’s cryptic, apocalyptic musings. It will be particularly interesting to consider this play alongside works of classical Greek tragedy, and those of Shakespeare. Funny, peculiar, hypnotic, endlessly confusing.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this 'cold' and dismissed it as pseudo-intellectual twaddle. Then I attended a rehearsed reading by professional actors (and director) in Edinburgh, with an audience discussion afterwards. And you realise it's a work of genius, or thereabouts. Thing is, I don't think anyone will get that on a single reading, or (as most will experience it) a single viewing. It was the audience discussion with director and cast that brought it all into focus. Read it a couple of times at least, and go see it if you get the chance.

[Klara Van Vlaenderen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awel he. Ik weet gewoon dat dit live 4 of zelfs 5 sterren zou zijn. Tea and catastrophe??? 4 oude vrouwen in een tuin? HECK YEA!!!! Maar dit stuk komt gewoon echt niet tot zijn recht op papier.

Personages onderbreken elkaar, leggen uit dat de moord op hun man écht wel zelfverdediging was, houden monologen over katten en zeggen daarna "eagles are fascist". Ik weet dat ik mij een breuk zou lachen in een zaal, maar helaas niet in mijn zetel. Zo jammer dat we geen opname kregen. Classic t&l om toneelstukken niet als opvoering te bestuderen.

[Víctor Heranz]

"Some groups lost their sexuality while others developed a new morality of constant ficking with any proximate body".

"I do get out it's just difficult".

"I can't love a kitchen, I can't love a kitchen anymore, if you've killed someone in a kitchen you're not going to love that kitchen (...) how do you talk to twelve year old when you've killed his father".



Caryl, siempre certera, qué admirable es toda su obra

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

The head critic at the LA Times actually teaches this play at a local university. He feels it is one of the greatest plays written in the 21st century.
And maybe he is right.
Maybe it needs to be seen to feel the full impact.
I have now read it twice and I just don't see how the audience is suppose to get what the Churchill wants them to get.

[Stella Brouwers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heel moeilijk om te begrijpen gewoon zonder er verder over te praten, maar het werd wel interessanter tijdens het bespreken in de les. Ook wel grappig gedaan, omdat je echt een gesprek volgt waarbij iedereen op elkaar inpikt en elkaar onderbreekt (gelezen voor Master Gender en Diversiteit course: Women Writers in Modern British Language)

[Eline · Rating 3 out of 5]

What on earth did I just read?
Honestly, loved the cynism and the little jokes. This 40 page play is very catastrophic and negative about the future in a fun way. But I do think watching this would be better than reading it.

[Luke Gorham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some plays translate well to text without the stage. Others don't. This, sadly, is the latter. 2.5