FAR AWAY by Caryl Churchill. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. July 3 at noon, July 5 at 2:45 pm, July 7 at 9:45 pm, July 8 at 2:15 pm, July 9 at 3:30 pm. Buy tickets. Rating: NNNN
In only 45 minutes and three short acts this amazing dystopian fantasy depicts the complete destruction of all social and natural systems.
World disintegration begins after a woman lies to her niece. Next, hatters ply their trade on people the government parades to their deaths. Finally, all animate and inanimate nature is at war.
Director Megan Watson enhances Caryl Churchill’s deepening nightmare with Patricia Allison’s choreography, performed with impeccable precision by the three-member cast. Sadly, Watson provides no vision of the parade of hats, the play’s central and most disturbing image.
Those familiar with a Churchill play like The Skriker (1994) will see how this play from 2000 develops similar apocalyptic themes. Others may find it a complete puzzle. Yet so relevant is the play to the political and ecological events of today that it is a challenge well worth confronting.