The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, Cottesloe Theatre, 26 March 1994

A strange play, this. Here is a link to its Wikipedia entry. Writing about it 25 yrars later, it seems in some ways more relevant now than it did then, as evidenced by the several revivals of it in recent years.

According to my log, Janie and I both found the play and the original RNT production we saw very good. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for that production.

The wonderful Kathryn Hunter was in it. As was Richard Katz, who had, at that time, fairly recently done a grand job with my material in NewsRevue. I’m pretty sure it was Richard who belted this one, for example:

I’m struggling to find reviews, but this preview from the Independent is interesting.

Here is a clipping from The Guardian:

Billington On The SkrikerBillington On The Skriker Sat, Jan 29, 1994 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

While here is a 79 page doctoral thesis about this play, which posits that our whole political and social system comprises patriarchal binary oppositions. So there.

And there was Janie and I thinking that we’d spent an evening seeing an interesting play by Caryl Churchill performed exceptionally well. What simple souls we were/are.

The Gift Of The Gorgon by Peter Shaffer, The Pit, 12 December 1992

Janie and I saw a preview of this one and thought it was absoutely great. Janie has since formed an aversion to Dame Judy Dench…or perhaps Janie liked this one despite Judy.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this one.

Below is Michael Coveney’s review from The Observer:

Gift of the Gorgon CoveneyGift of the Gorgon Coveney Sun, Dec 20, 1992 – 42 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michel Billington’s glowing review:

Gift Of teh Gorgon BillingtonGift Of teh Gorgon Billington Fri, Dec 18, 1992 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in The Independent was less keen – click here.