FAR AWAY Presented by Unseen Images Theatre

FAR AWAY is an hour long futuristic nightmare that envisions a world where the promise of violence broods and nothing is to be trusted. Written by the celebrated author of Top Girls and Cloud Nine, Caryl Churchill unveils a world of horrifically absurd fiction that still manages to convey a strange sort of sense. Beginning in a world recognizable as our own until a young child witnesses an act of fatal brutality, Churchill takes us through the progressive horrors of a world in which public execution has become a spectacle of capitalist ambition, and all living creatures are locked in a war of endlessly shifting alliances. Brutally poignant and fluidly jarring, Far Away introduces a conceptual interrogation that stretches the boundaries of reality and politics. With a cast of three and some harsh content appropriate for adult audiences, it is a beautiful combination of sparse text and dense subtext. It is the kind of play that doesn’t leave you, even years after you’ve heard its dark words uttered. A master that many attempt to emulate, Churchill is at her darkest in FAR AWAY. What makes this piece so very dark? Little seems to be happening, and, much like in the Greek tragedies, the darkness and violence occur off-stage. The horror comes from the casual way in which characters describe unspeakable violence. A hat for the slaughtered, a girl helping her family, the ants have joined the opposing side in a global war. Have we gotten there yet? How much farther do we really have to before our world descends into the one described in this play? When do unspeakable violences become normalized? Have we gotten there yet? In this simple, easily produced, shorter piece, Churchill guides her audience into asking these questions, forcing no agenda upon us, merely daring us to think as she must have to write this masterful play. Her prowess as a playwright is evident in the rhythm of FAR AWAY, and this is a play no audience member should soon forget.

This particular production will be featuring a talkback after the show with the audience and an invited panel of local leaders of the community about the themes in this fictional play that parallel some of the exact same issues that we are dealing with in our current political environment right here in the United States. It is no accident that this play is being staged the 2 weekends leading up to our 2016 presidential election. This show is being directed and geared towards sending the all important message to GET OUT AND VOTE on November 8’th, just 2 days after this production closes.