Far Away

A brilliant and unsettling play from one of the UK's leading dramatists. At the opening of the play, a young girl is questioning her aunt about having seen her uncle hitting people with an iron bar; by the end, several years later, the whole world is at war including birds and animals. Caryl Churchill's play Far Away is a howl of anguish at the increasing ' and increasingly accepted ' levels of inhumanity in a world seemingly perpetually involved in conflict. The play was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London, in November 2000. 'Conjures a devastatingly bleak dystopia... every word, every half sentence paints a picture that would make you laugh if it didn't want to make you cry... a tiny play, but an immense one. Chilling and thought provoking' - WhatsOnStage 'A dystopia of incomprehensible proportions... a masterclass of spare theatrical writing, encompassing tense family drama, political horror story, romance as well as absurdist comedy' - A Younger Theatre 'Perhaps the ultimate fan favourite out of [Churchill's] kaleidoscopic oeuvre... revered because of how powerfully and pithily it reads on the page... a play to witness Churchill at hurricane force, savage, hilarious, totally unlike anyone else' - Time Out 'A short play, but not a small play: it's global in scope, untethered by time, part fable, part prophecy... interlaces the bucolic, the fantastical and the harrowing, pairing [Churchill's] characteristic economy with wild, imaginative flourishes... dread filled, disturbing, and prescient' - The Stage 'A twisted fairy tale that demonstrates [Churchill's] matchless gift for merging the apocalyptic and the fantastical... brilliantly absurdist... A sliver of genius' - Independent 'Caryl Churchill was expected to produce something explosive in Far Away, but... she has exceeded the critics' highest expectations' - Observer 'You know you are in the hands of a master' - Sunday Times