A pertinent Caryl Churchill double bill struggles to truly take off.
Caryl Churchill has been a playwright of our times for as long as she has been writing, consistently holding up a mirror to society in mesmerising and often terrifying ways. ‘Escaped Alone’ and ‘What If If Only’, double billed by the Royal Exchange Theatre and directed by Sarah Frankcom are certainly no exception — in the programme notes, Maureen Beattie who plays Mrs Jarrett in ‘Escaped Alone’ aptly puts it that Churchill “looks the beast in the eye” with her writing, refusing to turn away from the horrors that continue to plague the world. But despite this, Frankcom’s production lacked the sucker punch the writing promises, stunting a piece that could otherwise soar.
The production is paired back and concise, running at only fifty five minutes for ‘Escaped Alone’ and just shy of half an hour for ‘What If If Only’. Rose Revitt’s deft design follows suit, with the former play featuring just four chairs on a small strip of astroturf, which later lifts up to reveal the cluttered apartment setting for ‘What If If Only’. Both pieces simmer with tension and atmosphere, despite their short runtime. ‘Escaped Alone’ contrasts a meandering conversation between four women in their 70s with horrific visions of an apocalyptic present that seems to hover in the background, scored menacingly by Nicola T. Chang. ‘What If If Only’ features Someone (Danielle Henry) in the wake of the death of her partner, conjuring what could have happened differently and what might still happen in the future. Both are incredibly pertinent plays, but I didn’t walk away feeling particularly affected.
Ultimately, I felt that the production failed to really reach out. Something that makes Churchill’s writing so extraordinary is her ability to convey intricate messages via much wider, seemingly unrelated metaphors, like the hat making in ‘Far Away’. She is in equal measures sardonic and earnest. But something about this production felt exclusive and closed off, like it was catering to “theatre people” or those who really “get” Caryl Churchill’s work. The blocking for ‘Escaped Alone’ especially was incredibly insular, mostly just four women sat in lawn chairs who occasionally and pointedly switched positions every so often so that the audience could get a look at everyone’s faces equally in the round. It rippled with tension, largely due to stellar acting from Annette Badland as Vi/Future and Maureen Beattie as Mrs Jarrett especially, but it all felt behind some sort of intellectual veil. If you get it, you get it, if you don’t, you don’t. There was bizarrely raucous laughter from the audience at random points as if to prove this. ‘What If If Only’ handled this marginally better, with a more graspable concept. The edition of the Royal Exchange’s own elders company as possible futures waiting to happen was particularly effective.
Ultimately, Churchill’s writing still shines, punctuated with fantastic performances. But if the point of the production is to speak to the times we live in now, it would have been more effective to invite the whole audience along with it.