THE THEME OF MEMORY IN CARYL CHURCHILL’S “FAR AWAY” AND “ESCAPED ALONE”
THE THEME OF MEMORY IN CARYL CHURCHILL’S “FAR AWAY” AND “ESCAPED ALONE”

Summary/Abstract: From the 1990s onwards in particular, much significance has been given to theatre that is themed around the dual relationship between the mind and exposing the hidden memory, or re-animating what has been erased from memory. The aim of this paper is to uncover and defend the existence and future existence of a dystopic world in terms of how the mind relates it with reality in two post-modern plays, Escaped Alone (2016) and Far Away (2000), by one of British theatre’s most prominent of playwrights Caryl Churchill. Churchill, who is familiar negative direction that the world within which she lives is going, makes mention of a world that is leaning towards an unpredictable chaos by putting violence, death, and political events at the forefront. Within the frame of Jeanette Malkin’s Memoy-Theatre theory, the notion of the hidden memory emerges as Churchill uses the art of over-representation. In Far Away, how memory is changed and re-created as well when and how it affects the persona is emphasized through the use of three characters. Escaped Alone, which is about four women in their 70s who are reminiscing while gathered around in a backyard, the concept of time mangled into a state of complexity, bits and pieces of memories merge together, and global mayhem is projected before people’s eyes. Savagery and barbarianism are at the helm of each of these two plays. Churchill paints the future with a bleak sense of hopelessness and leaves her works open-ended.

• Details
• Contents