Customer Reviews

The Skriker

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Skriker" is a wonderous piece of drama. Melding English folklore with a contemporary environment, Churchill has managed to create a terrifying dramatic "fairy tale." The story revolves around two teenage girls, their pregnancies, and the Skriker, a shapeshifter and evil spirit who plays a unique Rumpelstiltskinian role. Bristling with dramatic possibilities, due in no small part to the countless creatures with names like Rawheadandbloodybones and Black Annis that roam the play, this important work commands a unique theatrical excitement. A full five-star ranking is reserved for Churchill's "Cloud Nine," a play of truly remarkable ingenuity in its handling of the sexual revolution and its consequences. Yet the Skriker stands tall at four and a half stars, basking in its fierce, modern intelligence.

I believe The Skriker is Churchill's finest play, and I've read them all and seen a number of them. She has woven many of her recurring themes and motifs in this play to dazzling effect: magic and myth, time and timelessness, gender and womanhood, mothering, and the power of the theatre to transform. The play is witty and somber, reassuring and threatening, and brilliantly unpredictable throughout.

I had the great pleasure of seeing this play put on and saw the skriker's wonderfulsome discombobbleheaded speech patterns. the music and full fol derol lol lolling of her/his/its words was a sight to behold. the creeping realization that josie had killed her baby thinking it was a changeling was slow, but when it got to you just blew me away. the skriker does get a little shrill and obnoxious at times, but it is there to be loathed, so I suppose I can't complain. the scene with the couch when seen live will scare you shitless every time.

I got to work on the production of this play at the NYSF/Public Theatre many years ago, and it was one of the best plays I'd ever worked on. When I read the text, I can still hear the actors' voices saying the lines. Fantastic. I wish I had a video of it, although it would not be able to capture the bizarrity and wonderfulness of the production.

this book is possibly the most ridiculous book i have ever read.it is a bunch of blabber that the author tries to disguise as something meaningful, absurd and intellectual. there is nothing to analyze here, it is very pretentious in how it really has no substance! like the first monologue is a just a bunch on nonsense that we are expected to see as representing motherhood, time etc etc when it really is just nothing!
an overall pointless ridiculous book.

Drawing on scores of tales we all remember from childhood, this play about a shapeshifter who pursues two young women will reverberate with you long after you've read it.