Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. review: A whirlwind ride through Caryl Churchill's relentless imagination

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Jessie Thompson @jessiecath26 September 2019

Just one new Caryl Churchill play would have been a huge event for theatregoers, but in her classic maverick style she’s delivered four in one go – and they are a thrilling reminder of why she’s our greatest living playwright.

Within this theatrical box of tricks, brilliantly directed by James Macdonald, Churchill spans everything from poetry to surrealism to tell four tales that feel both urgent to our current moment and like timeless, amber-cast fairytales. Each is leavened by her deeply comic sense of mischief.

There’s Glass, an Angela Carter-esque vignette about a mantelpiece of old knick-knacks that come to life, including a girl made of glass (Rebekah Murrell). In Kill, Tom Mothersdale plays God (literally), nonchalantly smoking a cigarette while sitting on a floating cloud. “We can enjoy a war – we don’t exist,” he says, making absurdity of Greek myths, showing the danger of creating false gods.

In Imp, Deborah Findlay and Toby Jones play a cantankerous odd couple each warding off anxieties about the universe in different ways. He goes running to combat depression, she thinks she’s got an imp in a bottle; together they are overly invested in a young couple’s love story. It’s a poignant look at how our beliefs can comfort and trap us.

Best of all is Bluebeard’s Friends, in which a group drink wine and try to come to terms with the fact that their friend was a misogynist serial killer. In the most incisive dramatic study of our post-Weinstein mentality we’ve yet to see, bloodied disembodied dresses float in the air as the group try to process what's long been happening. It’s full of black comedy – and lingering reminders that such violence isn't over.

With an impeccable cast and Miriam Buether’s subtly strange set, this whirlwind ride through Churchill’s relentless imagination is not to be missed. I would call her a god. But I don’t think she’d like that.

Until October 12 (020 7565 5000; royalcourttheatre.com)


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