alphabetical author index

Fen

  • Caryl Churchill
  • Full Length Play, Drama, Contemporary
  • 3M, 3F, 16M or F
  • ISBN: 9780413622709

"Ms. Churchill has put together with grace and anger an a generous humor an evening almost entirely composed of wants."

Sunday New York Times

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama

  • Time Period: Contemporary
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1983-1984)
This remarkable playwright shows still another aspect of her talent in Fen, which takes place in England's swamp or "fen" country and focuses on a gang of women landworkers. The play looks at their work situation and their private lives and dreams.

In particular, we follow the story of Val, who leaves her husband and children to live with a farm worker, Frank. Other characters include Angela, the outsider who torments her stepdaughter Becky; Alice, who has turned to religion; Nell, who tries to assert her rights against the farmer; Shirley, who prides herself on keeping going. A community with strong links with the past but living in a present where the land is owned by multinationals.

Available in Caryl Churchill: Plays 2

REVIEWS:

"Ms. Churchill has put together with grace and anger an a generous humor an evening almost entirely composed of wants."

 Sunday New York Times

"Will establish Miss Churchill without question as a playwright who expresses the complexities of the world through the lives of individual women brilliantly."

 Wall Street Journal

  • Casting: 3M, 3F, 16M or F