Eclipse Theatre Company has announced its 2020 season will focus on the works of Caryl Churchill and include three full productions, readings, and public events focused on her work.

“For more than six decades, Caryl Churchill’s plays have consistently pushed the bounds of theatrical form while dealing with many of the social and political issues that are now among the most crucial in our society: class, economic inequality, gender identity, totalitarianism, and ageism,” comments Interim Artistic Director Steve Scott. “Passionate, witty and profoundly human, her works lovingly explore our essential humanity while fiercely confronting the problems that threaten to divide and overwhelm us. The Eclipse ensemble is honored to have the opportunity to explore her remarkable career, allowing our audiences to experience the innovation and variety that have made her one of the most influential playwrights of the past century.”

The 2020 Caryl Churchill Season will include (from the press release):

“Cloud 9”
Directed by Rachel Lambert
April 16 – May 24, 2020

Eclipse opens the 2020 Caryl Churchill Season with her time-shifting comedy, Cloud 9, both a 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 is really going on is a marvelous send-up and a non-stop round-robin of sexual liaisons. 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.

SHOW 2 -TBA
Directed by Ensemble member Zach Bloomfield
July 16 – August 16, 2019

“Far Away”
Directed by Ensemble Member Steve Scott
November 19 – December 20, 2020

This innovative hour-long work envisions a world where the promise of violence broods and nothing is to be trusted. The New York Times says the play is “…Ravishing, deeply disturbing… Has the picturesque form and gentle rhythms of a fairy tale. There is an uncommon density and sureness of purpose…Each carefully chosen detail seems to vibrate with unsettled depths.”