Playwright: Caryl Churchill
At: Next Theatre, 927 Noyes, Evanston
Phone: (847) 475-1875; $18-$29
Runs through: March 14
What happens when man succumbs to depravity and barbarism? How will the world end? With a bang? A whimper? How much can we turn on ourselves before the whole world turns on us? These are the kinds of questions that may have run through the mind of British playwright Caryl Churchill when she crafted Far Away, a black, surreal, and apocalyptic vision. Although Churchill's pared-down script runs only about 50 minutes, what it gets across, and the gloom and terror it spreads, are huge.
We open with a scene of steadily ratcheting terror and dread. Ten-year-old Joan is staying with her aunt, Harper. Joan begins by telling her aunt about a scream she's heard, then how a trip outside revealed blood, children being beaten with a metal pipe, and her uncle behind all of it. Harper (an evil, calm presence delivered with cunning by Wendy Robie) spins more and more lies to convince her niece that nothing is awry and that her uncle is merely fighting the good fight. Twenty years later, Joan is all grown up and a working girl, making fantastic hats for state-sanctioned 'parades' and working next to a likable young man (Dan Kuhlman). The mood is jolly, but mysterious, but this mood is quickly squelched when the purpose of the hats is revealed as grim, ragged prisoners lockstep across the stage wearing them ... to their execution by firing squad. Finally, Joan and her coworker return to the farmhouse of the play's beginning. Everything has changed. The world is under siege and this time it's not just man against man, it's nature against man, and nature against nature as beasts, insects, and even rivers and grass join in this huge 'world' war.
Churchill has written an absurdist fairy tale that chills and shocks ... and makes one think, for days afterward. Credit Next Theatre and director Lisa Portes for taking on such a daunting task and delivering it, without apology, to their mostly suburban audience. I think Churchill would be pleased with Next's production. As Joan, Karen Aldridge is astonishing, demonstrating range that puts her in a league with the finest of actors. Wendy Robie and Dan Kuhlman are believable and gripping. This trio knows what's going on here, even though we, as an audience, may not always know. Portes directs a fine creative team, too. Brian Sidney Bembridge's set is the perfect complement to this weird fairy tale, with lots of black, and tiny, forbidding windows. Joshua Schmidt's sound adds a core of solid terror and dread.
Far Away is scary, provocative stuff. And well worth seeing.