Throughout her career she has also written short plays for radio, stage and television, ten of which Churchill has selected for this volume. Only one has been published before and very few have been performed again since their premiere. They range from early radio plays like Lovesick and Abortive, through TV plays from the seventies such as The Judge's Wife and The After-Dinner Joke, to more recent stage plays like Three More Sleepless Nights and...

"This is a Chair" is an experimental short play by Caryl Churchill in which heavy topical news bulletins are each followed by a scene that has nothing to do with the news announcement.

"The play follows the Skriker, 'a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged,' in its search for love and revenge as it pursues two young women to London, changing its shape at every new encounter" --

Here we are in 1880 darkest but British Africa as portrayed in old movies, plays and novels. Only with a difference. Both parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes especially towards 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...

Marlene has been promoted to managing director of a London employment agency and is celebrating. The symbolic luncheon is attended by women in legend or history who offer perspectives on maternity and ambition. In a time warp, these ladies are also her co-workers, clients, and relatives. Marlene, like her famous guests, has had to pay a price to ascend from proletarian roots to the executive suite: she has become, figuratively speaking, a male oppressor...