Hotel

by Caryl Churchill

A new piece, commissioned by the innovative music/dance/theatre group Second Stride , which shows eighteen characters simultaneously experiencing one night in the same hotel.

Genres: Plays

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 1997

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

[massmarketbareback · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give that hotel a terrible review on Tripadvisor.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An opera libretto, or tiny poems. Whatever you want! Perfect hot weather/my period is about to start reading

[EvaLovesYA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also posted on Eva Lucias blog

”Hotel” is a play that is written by Caryl Churchill.
I would say that it is one of those plays you have to see live, simply to capture the essence of it. There were so many different elements in this, but at times, it was very confusing because the text and dialogue would not reveal anything. You simply have to visual everything, and even better; see it in a theatrical setting. I haven’t read many dramatical works, but I’m still quite fascinated by it. I’ve mostly been reading works by Samuel Beckett and playwrights by Oscar Wilde. It’s all quite new to me. While I can easily put the others into categories and work them out in my mind, this simply doesn’t make sense to me.

Will I still have a shadow?
Will I still have a mind?
Wind blow through
Will invisible eyes still see?

Although, it was only 40 pages long, there were several elements of it that I really liked. The language was beautiful and very inspiring at times; deep, dark and full of symbolism. Another matter I enjoyed was the fact that everything happens over two nights; and the fact that no one really knows what is going on. I am sure that none of the characters in the 8 rooms have experienced the exact same nights, even though they were staying in the same hotel.
In the darkness, everything will not be revealed. The bad will not be seen and the good will be hidden in the shades. Who knows, maybe the characters know as little as the reader looking down on the pages?
Who will leave the hotel in the morning and still be their selves? Who would have managed to figure everything out?
In a room anything can happen...

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[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is one of those works that has to be read in conjunction to seeing it live. Some plays translate amazingly from page to reader, ‘Hotel’ is defiantly not one of them. At first glance, I felt this play lacked substance, but, on reflection, it seems to be one of the best examples of postmodernism literature within dramatic texts. It breaks every idea of structure, form, character development; the list goes on. It is by no means the best play I’ve ever read, or the best play by Churchill, but it’s unique, bizarre and an interesting exploration of the intersections between poetry, drama and opera.

[Theodore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love this concept of eight hotel rooms conjoined into one. I’d love to see it realized outside of an opera situation.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting but frustrating reading this play. What we have here is essentially just a sketch for the final performance piece that, while interesting, makes you yearn to see the final product. This book includes the text used as well as short essays by the three collaborators that communicate their intentions for the piece. While this helps you get a slightly better sense of what the production is/was, you still end up with a very incomplete picture. That being said, it does leave a lot of opportunity for another company to create their own vision of Hotel.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

this play made me think about theatre in a different way, as all churchill's plays have for me. reading this play feels a little without. it clearly was much more in performance but imagining it is exciting.

[Susan L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

review later.