Playwright: Caryl Churchill
Rights: Samuel French
Synopsis: This time-shifting comedy by the author of Top Girls created a sensation with its Off Broadway premiere, directed by Tommy Tune. Both parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes, especially toward sex. There is Clive, a British functionary; his wife Betty (played by a man); their daughter Victoria (a rag doll); Clive’s friend Harry, an explorer; Mrs. Saunders, who runs about dressed in a riding habit; Clive’s son Edward, who still plays with dolls and is played by a woman; and Joshua, a native servant who knows exactly what is really going on. What really is going on is a marvelous send-up and a non-stop round-robin of sexual liaisons. All this time the natives are restless in the background. The second act shifts to London in 1980. Except for the surviving characters, it is only twenty-five years later, and all those repressed sexual longings have evaporated, along with the Empire.
Rating:
Language: 16+
Adult Content: 18+
Violence: 10+
Pay attention to: This play explicitly addresses adult topics.
Flexibility: All changes must be approved in advance.
Production notes: