Plays
About
Caryl Lesley Churchill is a British playwright whose work has been associated with surrealist and postmodern theatre. She was born in London on September 3, 1938. Her family moved to Montreal after World War II, where Churchill matriculated at the Trafalgar School for Girls. In 1957, Churchill moved back to England to attend Oxford University, where she earned a B.A. in English Literature in 1960. During her time at Oxford, Churchill wrote four plays – Downstairs, You’ve No Need to be Frightened, Having a Wonderful Time, and Easy Death – all of which were performed by Oxford student theater groups. Churchill’s drama is widely recognized for abandoning realist approaches to theater in favor of surrealist experimentation, postmodern exploration of language, and an emphasis on the sexual politics and legacies of feminism. She draws upon Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud’s experimental approaches to theater which consider plays to be a political art form with the power to transform false senses of reality. Churchill is associated with Socialist Theater and left wing critical responses to the policies of Margaret Thatcher.