Caryl Churchill
British · 1938–
British playwright whose formally inventive, politically charged work has redefined the possibilities of the stage, using overlapping dialogue, time displacement, and structural estrangement to expose the violence hidden within capitalism, gender, and systems of power.
Wikipedia ↗“Top girls don't put themselves forward, / top girls seize the day. / Top girls keep their nerve and look / as if they're having a wonderful time.”
English
“I don't see how the theater can fail to be political. Every play is political whether the writer intends it or not. If it supports the status quo, that is a political act. If it's silent about injustice, that silence is political.”
English
“The terrible thing is that sometimes you look at the world and you can't tell what's terrible.”
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“Ordinary things are what I find most frightening. Most political damage is done by ordinary people behaving ordinarily within systems that have extraordinary consequences.”
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Salter / Bernard
“What's so frightening? That I might be the same as the next one? That the next one won't come from me? How do I know what I feel is what I feel?”
English
“I think the century can't be dealt with by individual characters. The whole structure has to carry the meaning. People are not in charge of their own destinies — systems are.”
English