The Skriker - by Caryl Churchill (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Premiered at the Royal National Theatre, this extraordinary play by one of Britain's leading playwrights combines English folk tales with modern urban life. In terms of its language alone, it is as exciting and challenging on the page as on the stage.

The play follows the Skriker, "a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged", in its search for love and revenge as it pursues two young women to London, changing its shape at every new encounter. Along with the Skriker come Rawheadandbloodybones, the Kelpie, the Green Lady, Black Dog and more, till the whole country is swarming with enticing and angry creatures that have burst from the underworld.

Caryl Churchill has been hailed as a "dramatist who must surely be amongst the best half-dozen now writing" The Times. She is the author of some twenty plays including CLOUD NINE, TOP GIRLS, SERIOUS MONEY and MAD FOREST, all seen and admired all over the world.

From the Back Cover

Premiered at the Royal National Theatre, this extraordinary new play by one of Britain's leading playwrights combines English folk tales with modern urban life. In terms of its language alone, it is as exciting and challenging on the page as on the stage. The play follows the Skriker, 'a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged, ' in its search for love and revenge as it pursues two young women to London, changing its shape at every new encounter. Along with the Skriker come Rawheadandbloodybones, the Kelpie, the Green Lady, Black Dog and more, till the whole country is swarming with enticing and angry creatures that have burst from the underworld.

Review Quotes

"It certainly loosened my grasp on reality." -Marissa Oberlander, Chicago Reader

"The Skriker is certainly the most unusual play I've seen in recent memory. The text, itself, is the pinnacle of what it means to be out-of-the-box... the proud weirdness, discombobulation, paranoia, transformation, and sinister magic of this play come together to build something unquestionably singular and blatantly eclectic." - Johnny Oleksinski, Podunk critic

"This portrait of a London haunted by unhappy gremlins bears roughly the same relationship to urban living that Psycho does to taking a shower, turning the familiar into a hall of terrors. Afterward, you'll be even more intent than usual on avoiding the eyes of people on the streets, wondering what demons lurk inside. You'll even think twice before sitting on your sofa. Be afraid; be very afraid. (Or to borrow from the play's phrase-fracturing title character, an ailing, shape-shifting fairy, "Whatever you do don't open the do don't open the door.") Ms. Churchill, the author of "Fen" and "Top Girls," has delivered her most unsettling indictment yet of an incurably diseased world. While it is also her most densely cerebral, difficult work, its enveloping chill isn't just intellectual." - Ben Brantley, New York Times

About the Author

Caryl Churchill (1938-) is probably the most respected woman dramatist in the English-speaking world. She is the author of some twenty plays including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Serious Money, The Skriker, Blue Heart, Far Away and A Number, seen and admired all over the world. CARYL CHURCHILL's plays include "Cloud Nine" (revived in 2007 to huge acclaim at the Almeida, London), "Top Girls", "Serious Money", "The Skriker", "Blue Heart", "Far Away" and "A Number". Most are published by NHB.