# data[].attributes.body
Caryl Lesley Churchill is an English playwright born in 1938. She was born in London and is now 86 years old. After the Second World War her family moved to Montreal Canada she was 10 years old. In Canada she attended Trafalgar school for girls. In 1956 she returned to England to study at lady Margaret hall in Oxford. Her 4 earliest plays were performed at this university by student ensembles. Her play “downstairs” was performed at the national student drama festival in 1958 and it won the first prize.

# data[].attributes.body
Top girls- It centres on Marlene, a career-driven woman who is heavily invested in women's success in business. The play examines the roles available to women in old society, and what it means or takes for a woman to succeed. It also dwells heavily on the cost of ambition and the influence of Thatcherite politics on feminism.

Cloud 9- Clive, a British colonial administrator, lives with his family, a governess and servant during turbulent times in Africa. The natives are rioting, and Mrs Saunders, a widow, comes to them to seek safety. Her arrival is soon followed by Harry Bagley, an explorer. Clive makes passionate advances to Mrs Saunders, his wife Betty fancies Harry, who secretly has sex with Joshua, and later with Clive's son, Edward. The governess Ellen, who reveals herself to be a lesbian, is forced into marriage with Harry after his sexuality is discovered and condemned by Clive

Serious money-The plot follows Scilla and Jake who are enjoying the pleasures and the comforts of the upper class. But the story climaxes when Jake Todd turns up murdered during the first few scenes due to his underground trading.

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/top-girls/summary

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Serious-Money

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Plot Summary | LitCharts

# data[].attributes.body
Much of the work Churchill produced with Monstrous Regiment and Joint Stockdeveloped out of contemporary feminist history and was shaped by Brecht, who would remain an influence on many of Churchill's later plays, including Top Girls(1982).

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-63689-9_10

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Abstract

This chapter looks the innovations and inspirations of Caryl Churchill. I consider plays from 1970s to 2016, and her involvement with the Royal Court Theatre. I explore ways she has experimented with stylistics and language, moving between naturalism, fantasy and verse to change conceptions of what is a play and what it can do. The chapter involves close reading of three plays: Top Girls (1982) Far Away (2000) and Escaped Alone (2016) to consider ways in which her plays deal with opposing forces of authoritarian, rational and repressive power structures with the non-rational, playful and fantastical and discusses her influence on a new generation of experimental women playwrights.

In the discussion of Top Girls, I consider the visceral experiential aspects of this play about the limits of sisterhood in relation to patriarchy and the rise of Mrs Thatcher. I show how Churchill resists a cathartic climax associated with the objectifying male gaze, letting us draw our own conclusions.

In Faraway, I consider the influence of Blasted by Sarah Kane. In her play, Churchill uses experimental and experiential structures to reveal links between the unsafety of a child in a domestic scene, capitalist corruption and global ecocide, in just 26 pages.

In my analysis of Escaped Alone I show Churchill's enduring commitment to putting the stories and relationship between women centre stage, the pleasures women take in each other's company. Innovation comes with a direct separate address by Mrs Jarrett in which various global catastrophes are described. Once again, the play is experiential and evades clear answers.

Finally I review writers such as Winsome Pinnock, Lucy Kirkwood and Moira Buffini, who have credited Churchill as a founding influence, discussing the protean imagination of a writer who resists simple domestic interiors for bold experimentation, 'to elicit an urgently needed political sensing that the world might be otherwise.' (Elaine Aston)

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Get 10 units per month

Download Article/Chapter or eBook

1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter

Cancel anytime

Subscribe now
Buy Now

Hardcover Book

USD 129.99

Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Bassett, Linda. 2016. Sunshine and Terrible Rage. www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/10/linda-bassett-caryl-churchill-escaped-alone-royal-court. Accessed January 07, 2023.

Churchill, Caryl. 1982 [2014]. Top Girls (in Naismith, Bill and Worral, Nick. ed (2014) Top Girls Bloomsbury.

Google Scholar

---. 1991. Top Girls on Stage: Interviews BBC and Open University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK7ebGa2XXY. Accessed June 27, 2023.

Featherstone, Vicky. 2016. Escaped Alone Resource Pack pdf. https://d19lfjg8hluhfw.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/25191802/Escaped-Alone-Resource-Pack.pdf. Accessed September 27, 2023

Macdonald, James. 2015. Escaped Alone Resource Pack pdf. https://d19lfjg8hluhfw.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/25191802/Escaped-Alone-Resource-Pack.pdf. Accessed September 27, 2023.

Rebellato, Dan. 2020. Playwrights in Lockdown Moira Buffini. https://youtu.be/r1RVKc2N0Cw. Accessed July 01, 2023.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Brighton University, Hove, UK

Julie Everton

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Everton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

1. School of Humanities, University of Brighton, Hove, East Sussex, UK

Kate Aughterson

2. School of Humanities, University of Brighton, Hove, East Sussex, UK

Deborah Philips

Copyright information

© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Everton, J. (2025). Innovations and Influences: Caryl Churchill. In: Aughterson, K., Philips, D. (eds) Women Experimenting in Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-63689-9_10

Download citation

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Get shareable link

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Innovations and Influences: Caryl Churchill

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This chapter looks the innovations and inspirations of Caryl Churchill. I consider plays from 1970s to 2016, and her involvement with the Royal Court Theatre. I explore ways she has experimented with stylistics and language, moving between naturalism, fantasy and...

# data[].attributes.body
Churchill is known for her use of dramatising the abuses of power, non naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes.

experimentation with form- pantomime, verse, historical epics and dream visions. She often incorporates other art forms into her work to express her vision such as opera and dance.

Fragmented narratives- non linear timelines, lack of clear character development. This leaves room for people’s own interpretations

Surrealism and absurdity- uses unexpected twists and absurd situations to challenge expectations and explore the boundaries of reality.