Bloomsbury The Theatre of Caryl Churchill (Critical Companions)

The Theatre of Caryl Churchill documents and analyses the major plays and productions of one of Britain's greatest and most innovative living playwrights, who has been challenging audiences for over four decades. Drawing on hundreds of never-before-seen archival sources from America and Britain, it provides an essential guide to her ground-breaking work for students and theatre-goers. The author maps Churchill's work across five key areas, providing a thematic approach that illuminates connections between plays, exploring the major works and drawing parallels with lesser known work. Through its five interlocking parts, The Theatre of Caryl Churchill tells a story about Churchill, her work, and its place in contemporary drama. Analyzing the rehearsal room, the stage, and the printed script, the book demonstrates how Churchill has pushed the boundaries of contemporary dramatic aesthetics while consistently asking pressing political and theoretical questions. Review "Gobert offers a refreshing exploration of how the rehearsal process and actual productions help shape viewers' perceptions of the author's work. Students and scholars of today's theatrical landscape will find much to admire in this volume, not the least of which is the research methodology, the contextual analysis, and the timeliness of the subject matter ... A real plus is the examination and analysis of the production history of many of Churchill's works. Top Girls, Serious Money, Cloud Nine, Fen, and Blue Heart receive treatment generally not available elsewhere ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers." --M. D. Whitlatch, Buena Vista University, CHOICE"Gobert states in the preface, 'This study is never dispassionate. Caryl Churchill is my favourite playwright, ' and thank goodness for that. Happily, Gobert's enthusiasm for Churchill's work is matched by the rigor of the analyses, making this book both a great pleasure and a boon for theatre scholars." -Tamsen Wolff, Performing Arts Journal, Inc. "In The Theatre of Caryl Churchill, R. Darren Gobert strings together connections between Churchill's works, enabling readers--whether Churchill novices or authorities--to understand the playwright's corpus as a whole and as a product of Churchill's politics. Until now, critical treatment of Churchill's work has been cursory and focused almost exclusively on her most well-known pieces, such as Top Girls and Cloud Nine. Gobert, a specialist in comparative drama, provides a much more expansive analysis, exploring three of Churchill's plays in each chapter while also drawing from a range of pieces, highlighting how they are integral to her body of work and, more important, to theatre ... Gobert's book provides a useful and dynamic account of Churchill as a playwright, feminist, and political crusader. Her body of work is given its due, as each chapter does justice to her plays--both the renowned and the unpublished." -Theatre Survey About the Author R. Darren Gobert specialises in comparative drama, dramatic and performance theory, and the philosophy of theatre at York University, Canada, where he is Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Graduate Programme in Theatre and Performance Studies. His publications include The Mind-Body Stage: Passion and Interaction in the Cartesian Theater. He is incoming editor of the journal Modern Drama.