Dystopian Vision in Caryl Churchill’s Far Away

Abstract

This research studies the play of the British playwright Caryl Churchill’s Far Away using the concept of dystopia as forwarded by M. Keith Booker, Lawrence Buell and Chad Walsh. The play deals with the realistic portrayal of contemporary world moving towards some sort of dystopia due to war, disintegration of human social and moral values and environmental degradation.

Far Away seems to present a dystopian vision of the postmodern society which is moving towards some sort of apocalypse. The world the characters inhabit is a hideously ravaged place because of war, oppression and material concern of the people. It is a dystopian vision of a world turned against itself and filled with horror and disgust triggered by wars, meaningless killing, anxiety and threat of the weapons of mass destruction, loss of human values and ecological problems invited by industrialization, urbanization, and other health hazards. Despite the hopes envisaged by the notion of American Dreams, the play seems to be exposing the myths of the Great American Dream. The play shows that American system as a whole is in real trouble, that it is heading in a direction that spells the end of its historic values of equality, liberty and meaningful democracy.