From Booklist
British playwright Churchill has always shown an unusual knack for combining striking theatrical experimentation and remarkably detailed re-creation of everyday life. Rarely, however, has she woven the two strands of her writing as tightly together as in this play in which one character, the Skriker, speaks long passages of Joycean (specifically, Finnegans Wake-ish) prose ("Heard her boast beast a roast beef eater, daughter could spin span spick and spun the lowest form of wheat straw into gold"), while the two others, Liz and Josie, both teenage girls, speak a very contemporary brand of English. This startling juxtaposition allows Churchill simultaneously to explore contemporary attitudes about the homeless and insane and tell a variation of the folktale about the malevolent, magical being that tries to trick a young woman out of her firstborn. The resulting play is rich, beautiful, and moving, though it may frustrate those who like their theater plain and simple. It's also a delight, whether on page or stage, for those who like to puzzle through dense, difficult texts. Jack Helbig
Review
Caryl Churchill is the author of over 20 plays, including Cloud Nine, Icecream, Traps, Shorts, Top Girls, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, and Mad Forest, as well as numerous radio and television scripts, which have been performed frequently and world wide. Her extraordinary new play is The Skriker. It combines English folk tales with scenes from modern urban life. The Skriker is "a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged", that searches for love and revenge as it pursues two young women from Lancaster to London, changing its shape with each encounter. -- Midwest Book Review
