Far Away

This short play has few characters. The action shows a young girl who witnesses violence by her uncle. The violence is explained away and justified by her aunt. The following acts shows that the rights of all have been lost and the resulting society is a maniacal and cruel place.

I first saw this play in Dublin in the summer of 2004. The only other play of Carol Churchill's I had seen was Cloud Nine. But this one blew me away. True, it is abstract and surreal, but just like subtext, what is under those strange hats and talks of "the darkness" and "the silence" choosing sides in the times of war, is very important to what is going on in our world today. Through simple language (the play only has one monologue and the time only spans an hour), images of love and war, innocence and torture, Carol Churchill shows us the worst of humanity in times of war. The workers in the hat factory, the little girl on the farm discovering what secrets can contain, the aunt who no longer cares for her family and only the "mission". All of these characters show us what can happen when we lose our humanity. I think that one of the very last lines of the play really says it all about war, changes in life, and even in Churchill plays: When you first step in, you don't know what's going to happen.

"Far Away," by Caryl Churchill, is a play with three speaking roles (one of which, according to the book's opening pages, was played by 2 actors). The title page notes that the play was first performed in London in 2000.The opening sections of the play have an ominous, Twilight Zone-ish flavor; there is a mix of surreal, absurdist imagery with dialogue about death and violence. The play opens with Joan, a girl who is staying at the home of her aunt, Harper. But as the two talk, it becomes clear that something secret and very disturbing is happening on Harper's property.There is some really weird dialogue in this play. Sample: "Mallards are not a good waterbird. They commit rape, and they're on the side of the elephants and the Koreans." I don't think that the final section of the play quite sustains the imaginatively nightmarish quality of the opening parts, and I found the ending somewhat abrupt; but still, "Far Away" is a remarkable text from a noteworthy theatrical voice.