Caryl Churchill

              Caryl Churchill: Research

Caryl Churchill, (born September 3, 1938, London, England), British playwright whose work frequently dealt with feminist issues, the abuses of power, and sexual politics.

When Churchill was 10, she immigrated with her family to Canada. She went to Lady Margaret Hall, a women’s college of the University of Oxford, and remained in England after receiving a B.A. in 1960.

Her three earliest plays, Downstairs (produced 1958), Having a Wonderful Time (produced 1960), and Easy Death (produced 1962), were performed by Oxford-based theatrical ensembles (involving no individual star but several actors whose roles are of equal importance: ensemble).

During the 1960s and ’70s, while raising a family, Churchill wrote radio dramas and then television plays for British television. Owners, a two-act, 14-scene play about obsession from power, was her first major theatrical endeavour and was shown in London in 1972. During her tenure as resident dramatist at London’s Royal Court Theatre, Churchill wrote Objections to Sex and Violence (1974), which, though it wasn't reviewed well, led to her successful association with David Hare and Max Stafford-Clark’s Joint Stock Company and with Monstrous Regiment, a feminist group.

Cloud 9 (1979), a farce about sexual politics, was successful in the United States as well as in Britain, winning an Obie Award in 1982 for playwriting. The next year she won another Obie with Top Girls (1982), which deals with women’s losing their humanity in order to attain power in a male controlled environment. Softcops (produced 1984), a surreal play set in 19th-century France about government attempts to depoliticize illegal acts, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Serious Money (1987) is a comedy about excesses in the financial world, and Icecream (1989) investigates Anglo-American stereotypes.

The former received an Obie for best new American play.