Far Away

Caryl Churchill

Cover

Caryl Churchill

FAR AWAY

Original Production

Far Away was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, on 24 November 2000, with the following cast:

YOUNG JOAN:	Annabelle Seymour-Julen
HARPER:	Linda Bassett
TODD:	Kevin McKidd
OLDER JOAN:	Katherine Tozer

Director	Stephen Daldry
Designer	Ian MacNeil

Lighting Designer	Rick Fisher
Sound Designer	Paul Arditti

The production transferred to the Albery Theatre in the West End on 18 January 2001, with the same cast.

The play received its American premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop, on 1 November 2002, directed by Stephen Daldry and performed by Alexa Eisenstein, Marin Ireland, Frances McDormand, Chris Messina and Gina Rose.

Characters

JOAN, a girl

HARPER, her aunt

TODD, a young man

The Parade (Scene 2.5): five is too few and twenty better than ten. A hundred?

1.

HARPER’s house. Night.

JOAN		I can’t sleep.
HARPER		It’s the strange bed.
JOAN		No, I like different places.
HARPER		Are you cold?
JOAN		No.
HARPER		Do you want a drink?
JOAN		I think I am cold.
HARPER		That’s easy enough then. There’s extra blankets in the cupboard.
JOAN		Is it late?
HARPER		Two.
JOAN		Are you going to bed?
HARPER		Do you want a hot drink?
JOAN		No thank you.
HARPER		I should go to bed then.
JOAN		Yes.
HARPER		It’s always odd in a new place. When you’ve been here a week you’ll look back at tonight and it won’t seem the same at all.
JOAN		I’ve been to a lot of places. I’ve stayed with friends at their houses. I don’t miss my parents if you think that.
HARPER		Do you miss your dog?
JOAN		I miss the cat I think.
HARPER		Does it sleep on your bed?
JOAN		No because I chase it off. But it gets in if the door’s not properly shut. You think you’ve shut the door but it hasn’t caught and she pushes it open in the night.
HARPER		Come here a minute. You’re shivering. Are you hot?
JOAN		No, I’m all right.
HARPER		You’re over-tired. Go to bed. I’m going to bed myself.
JOAN		I went out.
HARPER		When? just now?
JOAN		Just now.
HARPER		No wonder you’re cold. It’s hot in the daytime here but it’s cold at night.
JOAN		The stars are brighter here than at home.
HARPER		It’s because there’s no street lights.
JOAN		I couldn’t see much.
HARPER		I don’t expect you could. How did you get out? I didn’t hear the door.
JOAN		I went out the window.
HARPER		I’m not sure I like that.
JOAN		No it’s quite safe, there’s a roof and a tree.
HARPER		When people go to bed they should stay in bed. Do you climb out of the window at home?
JOAN		I can’t at home because – No I don’t.
HARPER		I’m responsible for you.
JOAN		Yes, I’m sorry.
HARPER		Well that’s enough adventures for one night. You’ll sleep now. Off you go. Look at you, you’re asleep on your feet.
JOAN		There was a reason.
HARPER		For going out?
JOAN		I heard a noise.
HARPER		An owl?
JOAN		A shriek.
HARPER		An owl then. There are all sorts of birds here, you might see a golden oriole. People come here specially to watch birds and we sometimes make tea or coffee or sell bottles of water because there’s no café and people don’t expect that and they get thirsty. You’ll see in the morning what a beautiful place it is.
JOAN		It was more like a person screaming.
HARPER		It is like a person screaming when you hear an owl.
JOAN		It was a person screaming.
HARPER		Poor girl, what a fright you must have had imagining you heard somebody screaming. You should have come straight down here to me.
JOAN		I wanted to see.
HARPER		It was dark.
JOAN		Yes but I did see.
HARPER		Now what did you imagine you saw in the dark?
JOAN		I saw my uncle.
HARPER		Yes I expect you did. He likes a breath of air. He wasn’t screaming I hope?
JOAN		No.
HARPER		That’s all right then. Did you talk to him? I expect you were frightened he’d say what are you doing out of your bed so late.
JOAN		I stayed in the tree.
HARPER		He didn’t see you?
JOAN		No.
HARPER		He’ll be surprised won’t he, he’ll laugh when he hears you were up in the tree. He’ll be cross but he doesn’t mean it, he’ll think it’s a good joke, it’s the sort of thing he did when he was a boy. So bed now. I’ll go up too.
JOAN		He was pushing someone. He was bundling someone into a shed.
HARPER		He must have been putting a big sack in the shed. He works too late.
JOAN		I’m not sure if it was a woman. It could have been a young man.
HARPER		Well I have to tell you, when you’ve been married as long as I have. There are things people get up to, it’s natural, it’s nothing bad, that’s just friends of his your uncle was having a little party with.
JOAN		Was it a party?
HARPER		Just a little party.
JOAN		Yes because there wasn’t just that one person.
HARPER		No, there’d be a few of his friends.
JOAN		There was a lorry.
HARPER		Yes, I expect there was.
JOAN		When I put my ear against the side of the lorry I heard crying inside.
HARPER		How could you do that from up in the tree?
JOAN		I got down from the tree. I went to the lorry after I looked in the window of the shed.
HARPER		There might be things that are not your business when you’re a visitor in someone else’s house.
JOAN		Yes, I’d rather not have seen. I’m sorry.
HARPER		Nobody saw you?
JOAN		They were thinking about themselves.
HARPER		I think it’s lucky nobody saw you.
JOAN		If it’s a party, why was there so much blood?
HARPER		There isn’t any blood.
JOAN		Yes.
HARPER		Where?
JOAN		On the ground.
HARPER		In the dark? how would you see that in the dark?
JOAN		I slipped in it.
		She holds up her bare foot.
		I mostly wiped it off.
HARPER		That’s where the dog got run over this afternoon.
JOAN		Wouldn’t it have dried up?
HARPER		Not if the ground was muddy.
JOAN		What sort of dog?
HARPER		A big dog, a big mongrel.
JOAN		That’s awful, you must be very sad, had you had him long?
HARPER		No, he was young, he ran out, he was never very obedient, a lorry was backing up.
JOAN		What was his name?
HARPER		Flash.
JOAN		What colour was he?
HARPER		Black with a bit of white.
JOAN		Why were the children in the shed?
HARPER		What children?
JOAN		Don’t you know what children?
HARPER		How could you see there were children?
JOAN		There was a light on. That’s how I could see the blood inside the shed. I could see the faces and which ones had blood on.
HARPER		You’ve found out something secret. You know that don’t you?
JOAN		Yes.
HARPER		Something you shouldn’t know.
JOAN		Yes I’m sorry.
HARPER		Something you must never talk about. Because if you do you could put people’s lives in danger.
JOAN		Why? who from? from my uncle?
HARPER		Of course not from your uncle.
JOAN		From you?
HARPER		Of course not from me, are you mad? I’m going to tell you what’s going on. Your uncle is helping these people. He’s helping them escape. He’s giving them shelter. Some of them were still in the lorry, that’s why they were crying. Your uncle’s going to take them all into the shed and then they’ll be all right.
JOAN		They had blood on their faces.
HARPER		That’s from before. That’s because they were attacked by the people your uncle’s saving them from.
JOAN		There was blood on the ground.
HARPER		One of them was injured very badly but your uncle bandaged him up.
JOAN		He’s helping them.
HARPER		That’s right.
JOAN		There wasn’t a dog. There wasn’t a party.
HARPER		No, I’m trusting you with the truth now. You must never talk about it or you’ll put your uncle’s life in danger and mine and even your own. You won’t even say anything to your parents.
JOAN		Why did you have me to stay if you’ve got this secret going on?
HARPER		The lorry should have come yesterday. It won’t happen again while you’re here.
JOAN		It can now because I know. You don’t have to stop for me. I could help uncle in the shed and look after them.
HARPER		No, he has to do it himself. But thank you for offering, that’s very kind. So after all that excitement do you think you could go back to bed?
JOAN		Why was uncle hitting them?
HARPER		Hitting who?
JOAN		He was hitting a man with a stick. I think the stick was metal. He hit one of the children.
HARPER		One of the people in the lorry was a traitor. He wasn’t really one of them, he was pretending, he was going to betray them, they found out and told your uncle. Then he attacked your uncle, he attacked the other people, your uncle had to fight him.
JOAN		That’s why there was so much blood.
HARPER		Yes, it had to be done to save the others.
JOAN		He hit one of the children.
HARPER		That would have been the child of the traitor. Or sometimes you get bad children who even betray their parents.
JOAN		What’s going to happen?
HARPER		They’ll go off in the lorry very early in the morning.
JOAN		Where to?
HARPER		Where they’re escaping to. You don’t want to have to keep any more secrets.
JOAN		He only hit the traitors.
HARPER		Of course. I’m not surprised you can’t sleep, what an upsetting thing to see. But now you understand, it’s not so bad. You’re part of a big movement now to make things better. You can be proud of that. You can look at the stars and think here we are in our little bit of space, and I’m on the side of the people who are putting things right, and your soul will expand right into the sky.
JOAN		Can’t I help?
HARPER		You can help me clean up in the morning. Will you do that?
JOAN		Yes.
HARPER		So you’d better get some sleep.

2.

Several years later. A hat makers.

JOAN and TODD. are sitting at a workbench. They have each just started making a hat.

TODD		There’s plenty of blue.
JOAN		I think I’m starting with black.
TODD		Colour always wins.
JOAN		I will have colour, I’m starting with black to set the colour off.
TODD		I did one last week that was an abstract picture of the street, blue for the buses, yellow for the flats, red for the leaves, grey for the sky. Nobody got it but I knew what it was. There’s little satisfactions to be had.
JOAN		Don’t you enjoy it?
TODD		You’re new aren’t you?
JOAN		This is my first hat. My first professional hat.
TODD		Did you do hat at college?
JOAN		My degree hat was a giraffe six feet tall.
TODD		You won’t have time to do something like that in the week.
JOAN		I know.
TODD		We used to get two weeks before a parade and then they took it down to one and now they’re talking about cutting a day.
JOAN		So we’d get an extra day off?
TODD		We’d get a day’s less money. We wouldn’t make such good hats.
JOAN		Can they do that?
TODD		You’d oppose it would you?
JOAN		I’ve only just started.
TODD		You’ll find there’s a lot wrong with this place.
JOAN		I thought it was one of the best jobs.
TODD		It is. Do you know where to go for lunch?
JOAN		I think there’s a canteen isn’t there?
TODD		Yes but we don’t go there. I’ll show you where to go.

Next day. They are working on the hats, which are by now far more brightly decorated ie the ones they were working on have been replaced by ones nearer completion.

JOAN		Your turn.
TODD		I go for a swim in the river before work.
JOAN		Isn’t it dangerous?
TODD		Your turn.
JOAN		I’ve got a pilot’s licence.
TODD		I stay up till four every morning watching the trials.
JOAN		I’m getting a room in a subway.
TODD		I’ve got my own place.
JOAN		Have you?
TODD		Do you want to see it? That’s coming on.
JOAN		I don’t understand yours but I like the feather.
TODD		I’m not trying. I’ve been here too long.
JOAN		Will you leave?
TODD		My turn. There’s something wrong with how we get the contracts.
JOAN		But we want the contracts.
TODD		What if we don’t deserve them? What if our work isn’t really the best?
JOAN		So what’s going on?
TODD		I’ll just say a certain person’s brother-in-law. Where does he work do you think?
JOAN		Where does he work?
TODD		I’m not talking about it in here. Tell me something else.
JOAN		I don’t like staying in in the evenings and watching trials.
TODD		I watch them at night after I come back.
JOAN		Back from where?
TODD		Where do you like?

Next day. They’re working on the hats, which are getting very big and extravagant.

TODD		I don’t enjoy animal hats myself.
JOAN		I was a student.
TODD		Abstract hats are back in a big way.
JOAN		I’ve always liked abstract hats.
TODD		You must have not noticed when everyonehated them.
JOAN		It was probably before my time.
		Silence. They go on working.
JOAN		It’s just if you’re going on about it all the time I don’t know why you don’t do something about it.
TODD		This is your third day.
JOAN		The management’s corrupt – you’ve told me. We’re too low paid – you’ve told me.
		Silence. They go on working.
TODD		Too much green.
JOAN		It’s meant to be too much.
		Silence. They go on working.
TODD		I noticed you looking at that fair boy’s hat. I hope you told him it was derivative.
		Silence. They go on working.
TODD		I’m the only person in this place who’s got any principles, don’t tell me I should do something, I spend my days wondering what to do.
JOAN		So you’ll probably come up with something.
		Silence. They go on working.

Next day. They are working on the hats, which are now enormous and preposterous.

TODD		That’s beautiful.
JOAN		You like it?
TODD		I do.
JOAN		I like yours too.
TODD		You don’t have to say that. It’s not one of my best.
JOAN		No it’s got – I don’t know, it’s a confident hat.
TODD		I have been doing parades for six years. So I’m a valued old hand. So when I go and speak to a certain person he might pay attention.
JOAN		You’re going to speak to him?
TODD		I’ve an appointment after work.
JOAN		You might lose your job.
TODD		I might.
JOAN		I’m impressed.
TODD		That was the idea.
JOAN		Will you mention the brother-in-law?
TODD		First I’ll talk about the money. Then I’ll just touch in the brother-in-law. I’ve a friend who’s a journalist.
JOAN		Will you touch in the journalist?
TODD		I might imply something without giving the journalist away. It might be better if he can’t trace the journalist back to me.
JOAN		Though he will suspect.
TODD		However much he suspects. One thing if I lost my job.
JOAN		What’s that?
TODD		I’d miss you.
JOAN		Already?

Next day. A procession of ragged, beaten, chained prisoners, each wearing a hat, on their way to execution. The finished hats are even more enormous and preposterous than in the previous scene.

A new week. JOAN and TODD are starting work on new hats.

JOAN		I still can’t believe it.
TODD		No one’s ever won in their first week before.
JOAN		It’s all going to be downhill from now on.
TODD		You can’t win every week.
JOAN		That’s what I mean.
TODD		No but you’ll do a fantastic body of work while you’re here.
JOAN		Sometimes I think it’s a pity that more aren’t kept.
TODD		There’d be too many, what would they do with them?
JOAN		They could reuse them.
TODD		Exactly and then we’d be out of work.
JOAN		It seems so sad to burn them with the bodies.
TODD		No I think that’s the joy of it. The hats are ephemeral. It’s like a metaphor for something or other.
JOAN		Well, life.
TODD		Well, life, there you are. Out of nearly three hundred hats I’ve made here I’ve only had three win and go in the museum. But that’s never bothered me. You make beauty and it disappears, I love that.
JOAN		You’re so . . .
TODD		What?
JOAN		You make me think in different ways. Like I’d never have thought about how this place is run and now I see how important it is.
TODD		I think it did impress a certain person that I was speaking from the high moral ground.
JOAN		So tell me again exactly what he said at the end.
TODD		‘These things must be thought about.’
JOAN		I think that’s encouraging.
TODD		It could mean he’ll think how to get rid of me.
JOAN		That’s a fantastic shape to start from.
TODD		It’s a new one for me. I’m getting inspired by you.
JOAN		There’s still the journalist. If he looks into it a bit more we could expose the corrupt financial basis of how the whole hat industry is run, not just this place, I bet the whole industry is dodgy.
TODD		Do you think so?
JOAN		I think we should find out.
TODD		You’ve changed my life, do you know that?
JOAN		If you lose your job I’ll resign.
TODD		We might not get jobs in hats again.
JOAN		There’s other parades.
TODD		But I think you’re a hat genius.
JOAN		Unless all the parades are corrupt.
TODD		I love these beads. Use these beads.
JOAN		No, you have them.
TODD		No, you.

3

Several years later.

HARPER’s house, daytime.

HARPER		You were right to poison the wasps.
TODD		Yes, I think all the wasps have got to go.
HARPER		I was outside yesterday on the edge of the wood when a shadow came over and it was a cloud of butterflies, and they came down just beyond me and the trees and bushes were red with them. Two of them clung to my arm, I was terrified, one of them got in my hair, I managed to squash them.
TODD		I haven’t had a problem with butterflies.
HARPER		They can cover your face. The Romans used to commit suicide with gold leaf, just flip it down their throat and it covered their windpipe, I think of that with butterflies.
TODD		I was passing an orchard, there were horses standing under the trees, and suddenly wasps attacked them out of the plums. There were the horses galloping by screaming with their heads made of wasp. I wish she’d wake up.
HARPER		We don’t know how long she’d been walking.
TODD		She was right to come.
HARPER		You don’t go walking off in the middle of a war.
TODD		You do if you’re escaping.
HARPER		We don’t know that she was escaping.
TODD		She was getting to a place of safety to regroup.
HARPER		Is this a place of safety?
TODD		Relatively, yes of course it is. Everyone thinks it’s just a house.
HARPER		The cats have come in on the side of the French.
TODD		I never liked cats, they smell, they scratch, they only like you because you feed them, they bite, I used to have a cat that would suddenly just take some bit of you in its mouth.
HARPER		Did you know they’ve been killing babies?
TODD		Where’s that?
HARPER		In China. They jump in the cots when nobody’s looking.
TODD		But some cats are still ok.
HARPER		I don’t think so.
TODD		I know a cat up the road.
HARPER		No, you must be careful of that.
TODD		But we’re not exactly on the other side from the French. It’s not as if they’re the Moroccans and the ants.
HARPER		It’s not as if they’re the Canadians, the Venezuelans and the mosquitoes.
TODD		It’s not as if they’re the engineers, the chefs, the children under five, the musicians.
HARPER		The car salesmen.
TODD		Portuguese car salesmen.
HARPER		Russian swimmers.
TODD		Thai butchers.
HARPER		Latvian dentists.
TODD		No, the Latvian dentists have been doing good work in Cuba. They’ve a house outside Havana.
HARPER		But Latvia has been sending pigs to Sweden. The dentists are linked to international dentistry and that’s where their loyalty lies, with dentists in Dar-es-Salaam.
TODD		We don’t argue about Dar-es-Salaam.
HARPER		You would attempt to justify the massacre in Dar-es-Salaam? She’s come here because you’re here on leave and if anyone finds out I’ll be held responsible.
TODD		It’s only till tomorrow. I’ll wake her up. I’ll give her a few more minutes.
HARPER		Did you see the programme about crocodiles?
TODD		Yes but crocodiles, the way they look after the baby crocodiles and carry them down to the water in their mouths.
HARPER		Don’t you think everyone helps their own children?
TODD		I’m just saying I wouldn’t be sorry if the crocodiles were on one of the sides we have alliances with. They’re unstoppable, come on.
HARPER		Crocodiles are evil and it is always right to be opposed to crocodiles. Their skin, their teeth, the foul smell of their mouths from the dead meat. Crocodiles wait till zebras are crossing the river and bite the weak ones with those jaws and pull them down. Crocodiles invade villages at night and take children out of their beds. A crocodile will carry a dozen heads back to the river, tenderly like it carries its young, and put them in the water where they bob about as trophies till they rot.
TODD		I’m just saying we could use that.
HARPER		And the fluffy little darling waterbirds, the smallest one left behind squeaking wait for me, wait for me. And their mother who would give her life to save them.
TODD		Do we include mallards in this?
HARPER		Mallards are not a good waterbird. They commit rape, and they’re on the side of the elephants and the Koreans. But crocodiles are always in the wrong.
TODD		Do you think I should wake her up or let her sleep? We won’t get any time together.
HARPER		You agree with me about the crocodiles?
TODD		What’s the matter? you don’t know whose side I’m on?
HARPER		I don’t know what you think.
TODD		I think what we all think.
HARPER		Take deer.
TODD		You mean sweet little bambis?
HARPER		You mean that ironically?
TODD		I mean it sarcastically.
HARPER		Because they burst out of parks and storm down from mountains and terrorise shopping malls. If the does run away when you shoot they run into somebody else and trample them with their vicious little shining hooves, the fawns get under the feet of shoppers and send them crashing down escalators, the young bucks charge the plate glass windows –
TODD		I know to hate deer.
HARPER		and the old ones, do you know how heavy their antlers are or how sharp the prongs are when they twist into teenagers running down the street?
TODD		Yes I do know that.
		He lifts his shirt and shows a scar.
HARPER		Was that a deer?
TODD		In fact it was a bear. I don’t like being doubted.
HARPER		It was when the elephants went over to the Dutch, I’d always trusted elephants.
TODD		I’ve shot cattle and children in Ethiopia. I’ve gassed mixed troops of Spanish, computer programmers and dogs. I’ve torn starlings apart with my bare hands. And I liked doing it with my bare hands. So don’t suggest I’m not reliable.
HARPER		I’m not saying you can’t kill.
TODD		And I know it’s not all about excitement. I’ve done boring jobs. I’ve worked in abattoirs stunning pigs and musicians and by the end of the day your back aches and all you can see when you shut your eyes is people hanging upside down by their feet.
HARPER		So you’d say the deer are vicious?
TODD		We’ve been over that.
HARPER		If a hungry deer came into the yard you wouldn’t feed it?
TODD		Of course not.
HARPER		I don’t understand that because the deer are with us. They have been for three weeks.
TODD		I didn’t know. You said yourself.
HARPER		Their natural goodness has come through. You can see it in their soft brown eyes.
TODD		That’s good news.
HARPER		You hate the deer. You admire the crocodiles.
TODD		I’ve lost touch because I’m tired.
HARPER		You must leave.
TODD		I’m your family.
HARPER		Do you think I sleep?
		JOAN comes in and walks into TODD’s arms.
		You can’t stay here, they’ll be after you. What are you going to say when you go back, you ran off to spend a day with your husband? Everyone has people they love they’d like to see or anyway people they’d rather see than lie in a hollow waiting to be bitten by ants. Are you not going back at all because if you’re not you might as well shoot me now. Did anyone see you leave? which way did you come? were you followed? There are ospreys here who will have seen you arrive. And you’re risking your life for you don’t know what because he says things that aren’t right. Don’t you care? Maybe you don’t know right from wrong yourself, what do I know about you after two years, I’d like to be glad to see you but how can I?
JOAN		Of course birds saw me, everyone saw me walking along but nobody knew why, I could have been on a mission, everyone’s moving about and no one knows why, and in fact I killed two cats and a child under five so it wasn’t that different from a mission, and I don’t see why I can’t have one day and then go back, I’ll go on to the end after this. It wasn’t so much the birds I was frightened of, it was the weather, the weather here’s on the side of the Japanese. There were thunderstorms all through the mountains, I went through towns I hadn’t been before. The rats are bleeding out of their mouths and ears, which is good, and so were the girls by the side of the road. It was tiring there because everything’s been recruited, there were piles of bodies and if you stopped to find out there was one killed by coffee or one killed by pins, they were killed by heroin, petrol, chainsaws, hairspray, bleach, foxgloves, the smell of smoke was where we were burning the grass that wouldn’t serve. The Bolivians are working with gravity, that’s a secret so as not to spread alarm. But we’re getting further with noise and there’s thousands dead of light in Madagascar. Who’s going to mobilise darkness and silence? that’s what I wondered in the night. By the third day I could hardly walk but I got down to the river. There was a camp of Chilean soldiers upstream but they hadn’t seen me and fourteen black and white cows downstream having a drink so I knew I’d have to go straight across. But I didn’t know whose side the river was on, it might help me swim or it might drown me. In the middle the current was running much faster, the water was brown, I didn’t know if that meant anything. I stood on the bank a long time. But I knew it was my only way of getting here so at last I put one foot in the river. It was very cold but so far that was all. When you’ve just stepped in you can’t tell what’s going to happen. The water laps round your ankles in any case.

CARYL CHURCHILL

Caryl Churchill has written for the stage, television and radio. Her stage plays include Owners (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1972); Objections to Sex and Violence (Royal Court, 1975), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Joint Stock on tour incl. Theatre Upstairs, 1976); Vinegar Tom (Monstrous Regiment on tour, incl. Half Moon and ICA, 1976); Traps (Theatre Upstairs, 1977); Cloud Nine (Joint Stock on tour incl. Royal Court, London, 1979, then Theatre de Lys, New York, 1981); Three More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly and Theatre Upstairs, 1980); Top Girls (Royal Court London, then Public Theater, New York, 1982); Fen (Joint Stock on tour, incl. Almeida and Royal Court, London, then Public Theatre, New York, 1983); Softcops (RSC at the Pit, 1984); A Mouthful of Birds with David Lan (Joint Stock on tour, incl. Royal Court, 1986); Serious Money (Royal Court and Wyndham’s, London, then Public Theater, New York, 1987); Icecream (Royal Court, 1989); Mad Forest (Central School of Speech and Drama, then Royal Court, 1990); Lives of the Great Poisoners with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride on tour, incl. Riverside Studios, London, 1991); The Skriker (Royal National Theatre, 1994); Thyestes translated from Seneca (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1994); Hotel with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride on tour, incl. The Place, London, 1997); This is a Chair (London International Festival of Theatre at the Royal Court, 1997); Blue Heart (Joint Stock on tour, incl. Royal Court Theatre, 1997); Far Away (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2000, and Albery, London, 2001, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2002); A Number (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2002, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2004); A Dream Play after Strindberg (Royal National Theatre, 2005); Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2006, then Public Theater, New York, 2008); Bliss, translated from Olivier Choinière (Royal Court Theatre, 2008); Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (Royal Court Theatre, 2009); Love and Information (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2012); Ding Dong the Wicked (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2012).

Other works by Caryl Churchill, published by Nick Hern Books

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire

Traps

Cloud Nine

Icecream

Mad Forest

The Skriker

Thyestes (translated from Seneca)

Hotel

This is a Chair

Blue Heart

A Number

A Dream Play (translated from Strindberg)

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?

Bliss (translated from Olivier Choinière)

Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza

Love and Information

Ding Dong the Wicked

Collections

Plays: Three

A Mouthful of Birds (with David Lan)

Icecream

Mad Forest

Lives of the Great Poisoners (with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink)

The Skriker

Thyestes

Plays: Four

Hotel

This is a Chair

Blue Heart

Far Away

A Number

A Dream Play (translated from Strindberg)

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?

Shorts

Lovesick

Abortive

Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen

Schreber’s Nervous Illness

The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution

The Judge’s Wife

The After-Dinner Joke

Seagulls

Three More Sleepless Nights

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

A Nick Hern Book

Far Away first published as a paperback original in 2000 by Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, in association with the Royal Court Theatre, London

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