One imagines that if Caryl Churchill met Alice in Wonderland she would get slightly annoyed at Alice’s prissiness and impatiently chide her to just roll with it…
At least that’s the impression this writer got after soaking up the four playful Churchill scripts that Public Theater has chosen for gleeful tray slides down rabbit holes of Churchill's imagination — Glass. Kill. What If Only. and Imp.
Churchill takes us first to meet a girl made of glass and to ponder what ensues from such a nature—
She is just about transparent and window-like. Her mother wants to protect her in bubble wrap. Her life unfolds on a mantle away from household marauders who might not see her. She is well aware of her fragility, and doesn’t much like to be touched…
With Churchill’s pen at work, all of this is neatly established in just a few lines, with realities beyond the mantle in total retreat. Is this a metaphor for the fragility of life? Dunno— maybe. What Glass surely is though is one heckuva fun detailing of an imaginary universe. How perfect that director James MacDonald and set designer Miriam Buether chose to amplify the precarious nature of the glass girl’s existence by having the cast perched high above and constantly flirting with the edges of their shelf stage. We pay attention in the same way one does when mentally preparing to pull a careless daredevil back from a subway ledge. We expect the ending that comes, but nonetheless are startled by it.
Public Theater Inserts Circus Acts to Spice the Churchill Prose Buffet
When the vermillion curtain falls and before the chaser lights surrounding the stage announce the next act, we get treated to an up close dazzling circus act. A onetime Cirque Du Soleil cast member, Junru Wang, balances her body in improbable poses making us think— huh? Does she have joints that mere humans don’t possess? Later in the program, a juggler (Maddit Morfit-Tigue) who is no stranger to vaudeville-style mime shtick shows us his stuff too. FUN! It’s as though Churchill has laryngitis and asks these wordless super-talents to fill in for her while she takes a quick break.
KILL, WHAT IF ONLY
When Churchill’s pen re-enters in Kill, Public Theater has Deirdre O’Connell playing God perched in heaven, floating on a cloud. Imagine Edith Hamilton is heavily dosed on ketamine and speed, and condensing her work into a few pages. Churchill becomes that addled Hamilton’s stenographer. O’Connell masterfully delivers Churchill’s riotous God monologue-cum-rant about all the darn killing we humans do in Gods’ name.
“…We didn’t ask for this killing and we don’t exist anyway,” God refrains.
Churchill’s script doesn’t just break down the third wall. It seems to instead ask— What wall? How fortunate that Public could marshal the powerhouse talents of O’Connell to bring Churchill’s short script to life. In this reviewer’s opinion, theater doesn’t come more delicious.
What If Only starts mundane enough, making us think the main character is just like any inconsolable widow or widower left bereft by suicide. Then there are ghosts, and dialogues with ghosts, and heady rumination about futurcide, to coin a phrase— the place where Churchill takes us. This is perhaps the performance’s most cerebral chew.
IMP
In a break with the three prior one scene plays, Churchill has Imp’s four characters unspool over time in about a dozen short scenes where they get to know each other and we get to know them. Two are middle aged cousins, one a niece recently orphaned by her parent’s suicide, and the last a one-time world adventurer now homeless and living in the ‘hood.
We hear echoes of the three prior plays. The now homeless world traveler has been on quite the odyssey. There is the suicide theme. There is the blind guy who has mistaken Oedipal sex with his biological mother. Dot—played again masterfully by O’Connell—tries to keep the title character Imp, a murderous spirit, in a bottle. Today she’s wheezing with emphysema it seems, and is chair-bound. Drip by drip we learn of her storied past, which included some prison time. Also drip by drip, Niamh—played by Adelind Horan —surprises us by her over-the-top angst about the dangerous possibilities of her own nature. Will her thoughts lure her to become an Islamic ideologue-terrorist, among other possibilities?
With flawless acting all around, Imp is like a Seinfeld-with-IEDs—providing a totally satisfying finale to this celebration of Churchill’s pen.
Anyone allergic to theatrical experimentation is warned to take a pass. For the rest of us, prepare to be thoroughly entertained.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
CAST:
Japhet Balaban, Ruby Blaut, Kyle Cameron, Orlagh Cassidy, John Ellison Conlee, Adelind Horan, Maddox Morfit-tighe, Deirdre O’connell, Cecilia Ann Popp, Sathya Sridharan, Junru Wang, Anya Whelan-smith, Ayana Workman
CREATIVE TEAM:
By CARYL CHURCHILL
Directed by JAMES MACDONALD
Scenic Design MIRIAM BUETHER
Costume Design ENVER CHAKARTASH
Lighting Design ISABELLA BYRD
Sound Design BRAY POOR
Prop Manager CLAIRE M. KAVANAH
Stunt Coordinator MICHAEL ROSSMY
Dialect Coach AMANDA QUAID
Production Stage Manager CAROLINE ENGLANDER
Line Producer EMMA MCSHARRY
Company Manager GRACE CHARIYA
Production Manager ALIYAH SALL
WHEN:
April 3 - May 11, 2025
WHERE:
The Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10003
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About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
