Week 2
Notes from Week 2:
Readings:
- Elaine Aston and Elin Diamond, “Introduction: On Caryl Churchill” in The Cambridge Companion to Caryl Churchill (1-17)
- Elaine Aston “Exploding Words and Worlds”, Caryl Churchill (80-102) Use Open Athens to log in if off campus
Glass. Kill. Bluebird. Imp – Caryl Churchil
Glass
- Characters became objects on a mantel piece
- Girl made of glass
- Metaphorical ‘Glass’ meaning throughout the piece, representing vulnerability
- Cast is quiet young: questions of fragility shown through that age
- Contemporary representation of the youth of this age shown in style of language, clothes worn
- Setting changes between mantlepiece and window sill (an area where people usually put things of value) stage within a stage
- Before the show started the stage had lights around it making it look like numerous things but it is deliberately highlighting the stage, highlights the fact that it is a theatre
- The stage was designed to look precarious
- No straight forward narrative created
- The seeking point within the current state
- Mental health in the younger generation
- Metaphorical representation of the multitude of forms of mental health, particularly depression, comes in
- Dismissive of the snowflake generation??
Kill
- Greek mythology
- Homicide
- Political stance
- Attack of the church?
- Oedipus complex
My Thoughts:
This week we went to see Caryl Churchill's new piece Glass. Kill. Bluebird. Imp. I am a big fan of Caryl Churchill and her style of writing and this rendition of the play was very thought-provoking with a multitude of ways to view the piece, something which is very much associated with Caryl Churchill's writing. My thoughts for the piece were that it was an attempt at displaying a view of mental health and then broadening out that concept through each of the narratives. Caryl Churchill attempted to display causality, repercussions, and solutions to mental health issues through each narrative bar Glass which was a launchpad for the play. If we focus on Kill we see the use of Greek Mythology to give over a view of how mental health is affected by church and politics. This is done by attacking the church and giving a strong political standpoint, furthermore, it displays the Oedipus complex famously used in the greek play by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex and in Hamlet, Shakespeare. Kill displays a causality and type of mental health problem, with politics, sex and church being a massive part of Young peoples lives in the modern era which place pressure on young people to view the world in a uncensored way, which a large amount of the time the young minds are not ready for, for example, the panic around Brexit, Trumps America and the constant mistreatment of all the different types of people there are in the world, furthermore, I believe, Kill has a dark undertone of hinting and exploring Church Shootings which have been apparent in the US, this is due to the attack on the church it assumes, that alongside its aggressive narrative and name seems to suggest that mental health is the cause of the attacks on churches.
The piece was brilliant and personally gave me a lot of inspiration into how I can write about mental health, learning about using discretion in pieces to give across deep-rooted narrative ideas.
My main gripe with this piece is that Churchill is attempting to write about a very important subject about a generation which she isn't part of, this makes it seem like she is not speaking from experience and only from viewership, with this knowledge it does demean the piece as it does throw into contention the idea that the play could be performed to display this generation as the Butterfly-Generation, which it has been wrongfully labeled in the media. This idea leave a bad taste in the mouth as I personally want to feel like it is a beautiful depiction of the important subject but is it real or artificial due to it not being from the hand of experience. I would find it fascinating to see how it would change if it was written or adapted by a person from this younger generation who has had experience with mental health.
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