In conjunction with the Hillsboro Reads program, Bag&Baggage presents a rehearsed reading of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, a futuristic nightmare where the promise of violence broods and nothing is to be trusted. We follow the life and experience of Joan, from a young girl witnessing horrific actions, to a young woman seeking refuge in a world where literally everyone and everything is at war.
Written by the celebrated author of Top Girls and Cloud Nine, this innovative work consists of three brief scenes. In the first, a young girl spending her first night in her new guardian’s house witnesses a bloody slaughter. Next, the girl, now grown, is spending her first day working in a hat factory. There, she and a young man concoct funny and elaborate hats that are to be worn for a horrific purpose. In the final scene, the boy and girl, now wed, are seeking refuge from a global conflict so extreme that even the animals are on one side or another.
Caryl Churchill wrote Far Away in 2000, investigating fear and its far-reaching effects and consequences. As the Hillsboro community grapples with the themes of Omar El Akkad’s American War, Bag&Baggage invites you to explore some of the same questions through the lens of Far Away.