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

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)
All rights reserved

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

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