About the Show

BAM presents the US premiere of Caryl Churchill's comically black look at the apocalypse, as four women chatting in a sunny backyard are interrupted by a series of bizarre disaster reports.

Three old friends and a neighbor. A summer of afternoons in the backyard. Lingering sunshine and inevitable darkness. Caryl Churchill, one of Britain’s most celebrated living playwrights, returns to BAM for the first time in 15 years with this humorous and profoundly unsettling daydream. 'Escaped Alone' is doomsday in a teapot, a calmly revolutionary vision of looming collapse.

Critic Reviews (24)

"A short and wondrous play that plumbs the depths of 21st-century terrors, large and small...Has the effect of a restorative tonic, and you may find a new bounce in your step as you leave it...No one in theater these days is better at exploding and reassembling traditional modes of language and storytelling...This magnificent writer’s latest variation on that form reaffirms such tales’ power to warm us even as they warn of the unspeakable dangers in the wide, dark world beyond."
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"Interruption and suspension are the texture of Caryl Churchill's latest play; the themes, appropriately enough, are loneliness and the end of the world. But 'Escaped Alone' still manages to be a floating, bewitching experience. It is gravely intended, but somehow nothing in it registers as weight...The atmosphere manages to stay light as a soap bubble, but Churchill's implications are devastating."
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"The life Churchill depicts is as bleak as the form she employs is brilliant. In both, her economy is breathtaking; pretty much all that happens over the course of an hour is that four late-middle-aged English women sit yakking away a summer afternoon, or several afternoons, in a fenced-in backyard. It’s more than enough to gut you...Though some of this is quite funny, Churchill never condescends to her characters, nor does the superb cast."
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"Under James MacDonald's direction, the ensemble members are initially delightful, with their characters' complexities gradually seeping out though finely nuanced performances...Clocking in at less than an hour, Churchill proposes ideas and leaves audience members with sufficient post-theatre time to devise conclusions."
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"‘Escaped Alone’ is elliptical, even cryptic, on the page. Macdonald and the four actors find rich meaning and vast emotion in the interstices of the playwright's lines....The play, at least as performed by the extraordinary Royal Court cast, is a Rorschach image ready to reflect any horrors or injustices festering in a spectator's imagination on a particular day as he or she contemplates this stunning production."
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"While the writing in 'Escaped Alone' is certainly gut-wrenching in its simplicity and precision, it is also deeply funny...It’s her skill with language that allows for so many interpretations...What makes the production so powerful is that director James Macdonald, along with his singular cast of four incredible actors, manages to bring Churchill's script to life in the clearest way possible."
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"The remarkable Caryl Churchill is offering her most devastating prophesy yet on the future of our planet. Called 'Escaped Alone,' it’s her latest, deadliest play...It’s one that creeps up on you, grabs you by the throat, and chokes you...A stellar quartet of veteran British stage and screen actresses lend both disarming comfort and frightening credibility to Churchill’s vision."
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“A captivating exploration of friendship, isolation and catastrophe and even with its short running time, it is indeed satisfying…The piece holds us tightly. In the lighter moments we join in their backyard reverie, but it is in the darker moments where the richness in their vulnerability, defenselessness, and ruination are the most thrilling to witness...When Mrs. Jarrett finally bids adieu, we also must say our goodbyes. It’s joyous in that moment, and we owe that to the delicious work of all."
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