Caryl Churchill
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. 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,” says Ensemble member Steve Scott.
Caryl Churchill

Cloud 9

Directed by Rachel Lambert
April 16 - May 24, 2020
Opening April 20 at 7:30 pm
Runs Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 2:00 pm

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.



Owners

Directed by Ensemble member Zach Bloomfield
July 16 - August 16, 2019
Opening July 20 at 7:30 pm
Runs Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm

Churchill's first stage play was widely praised as signalling the arrival in theatre of an exciting and promising talent. Set in an up-and-coming area of London, Owners is about a successful property developer who pursues the man she wants almost as passionately as she buys up old houses and drives out the tenants. "This play, which has such deep undertones, is on the surface a highly amusing folk comedy, full of brilliant observation, witty lines, a truly Dickensian zest in creating richly eccentric characters and a wealth of telling theatrical images." - Plays and Players



Far Away

Directed by Ensemble Member Steve Scott
November 19 - December 20, 2020
Opening November 23 at 7:30 pm
Runs Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm; Saturday & Sunday at 2:00 pm
No Performance Thanksgiving, November 26

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.”