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Caryl Churchill: Top Girls, The Skriker, Serious Money, A Number and More

By: Caryl Churchill
Narrated by: Prunella Scales, Michael Gambon, Daniel Craig, Maxine Peake, Lesley Manville, Bertie Carvel, Tobias Menzies, Dinsdale Landen, Deborah Findlay, full cast
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Summary

A collection of dramatisations and original radio plays by the award-winning playwright - plus bonus documentary

Caryl Churchill is one of Britain's most innovative and influential dramatists. Versatile and prolific, she has written over 50 plays for stage and screen and is renowned for her revolutionary theatrical techniques and themes of feminism, social politics and the abuse of power.

This box set brings together some of her best-known theatre plays, adapted for BBC radio with full casts. It opens with her landmark 1982 drama Top Girls, exploring the price women pay for success in a man's world. Serious Money satirises the corporate venality that followed the 1986 Big Bang; while The Skriker blends naturalism, horror and magical realism to tell a story of love, loss and revenge. Also included are A Number, a powerful look at human cloning and identity; Escaped Alone, a tale of four septuagenarian friends, afternoon tea and catastrophe; and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, focussing on the millennial movements that erupted during the English Civil War in the 1640s.

Churchill also wrote a number of original plays specially for BBC radio in the 1960s and '70s, seven of which are included here: her first professional audio drama The Ants; Identical Twins; Abortive; Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen; Schreber's Nervous Illness; Perfect Happiness and Henry's Past.

Among the stellar cast in these superb dramas are Daniel Craig, Maxine Peake, Lesley Manville, Hattie Morahan, Michael Gambon, Tobias Menzies, Bertie Carvel, Deborah Findlay, Kenneth Haigh, Prunella Scales, Monica Dolan, Dinsdale Landen and Clive Merrison. Concluding our collection is a bonus edition of Meridian, taking an in-depth look at Churchill's extraordinary oeuvre.

NB: Contains strong language

Production credits

Written by Caryl Churchill

Text copyright © Caryl Churchill 1962 (The Ants), 1968 (Identical Twins), 1971 (Abortive, Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen), 1972 (Schreber's Nervous Illness, Henry's Past), 1973 (Perfect Happiness), 1976 (Light Shining in Buckinghamshire), 1982 (Top Girls), 1987 (Serious Money), 1994 (The Skriker), 2002 (A Number), 2016 (Escaped Alone)

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Content List

Top Girls

Serious Money

The Skriker

A Number

Escaped Alone

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire

The Ants

Identical Twins

Abortive

Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen

Schreber's Nervous Illness

Perfect Happiness

Henry's Past

Meridian: Caryl Churchill

©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
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What listeners say about Caryl Churchill: Top Girls, The Skriker, Serious Money, A Number and More

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A Masterclass In Language And Post-modernism

Some plays were, of course, better than others. The collection itself though shows us that theatre can be both literary and expressive all at once. Language is what gives all these works their uniqueness — the use of interruptions and such... These works are to be listened to as an exploration in both language as a spoken form and our ability as humans to selectively change it to suit our requirements. I enjoyed the collection and "Escaped Alone" is a worthy listen in itself because I can't imagine the complexities of acting it live, never mind for radio. Speaking of radio, the work "Identical Twins" is a worthy listen because the same actor had to time his recordings, one twin in the left ear, the other in the right, describing scenes from their perspective... In short, if you are of a literary persuasion and enjoy spoken language being used as a playground for emotional context and modern experimentation, try this collection.

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All 13 ARE PUTRID

Returned. We found all 13 putrid. I have a degree in Literature and I am a writer we are a literary family, but these plays left all of us feeling cold.

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