OCTOBER 7 and 8- STAGED READING OF CARYL CHURCHILL’S
ESCAPED ALONE
– a play that meets the present moment-
PRESENTED BY SERIOUS PLAY THEATRE ENSEMBLE
WITH CHRISTINE ADAIRE, MARY BETH BROOKER, JUDITH FINE & MURIEL JOHNSON
Directed by Sheryl Stoodley
Technical Support: Robin W. Doty
WHERE: The Workroom@33Hawley St/ A.P.E. – Northampton, MA.
WHEN: Wednesday October 7 & Thursday October 8 at 8pm (Mid- Week Presentations)
(Box Office opens 7:15pm)
TICKETS: (Reservations Encouraged)
ZEFFY TICKET LINK:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/escaped-alone-staged-reading-by-serious-play-theatre
ESCAPED ALONE, by acclaimed English playwright, Caryl Churchill, was published in 2016 around the time of Donald Trump’s first election. I discovered this piece in 2018, in the New Scripts Library in the Traverse Theatre at the EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL, Scotland, while on tour with Serious Play’s production of THE RED GUITAR. I fell in love with Churchill’s imaginative use of language, the experimental construct of the play and the strong female perspective. But at the time, I felt it was far too harsh a message to be presented by Serious Play. Now, in 2026, I feel differently.
ESCAPED ALONE contrasts the mundane, witty, fragmented chatter of older women enjoying afternoon tea in a neighbor’s backyard, with the prophetic, disturbing visions of climate disasters and societal collapse, foreseen by one of them.
The play is both darkly comedic and chillingly profound.
A play for this moment in time.
Why did we use this painting by Ellen Day Hale (1885) as the image on the poster for our production of ESCAPED ALONE?
This summer, I had the good fortune to travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with my daughter-in-law, Johanna Hoogendyk, who is a talented portrait painter, and art instructor at two local colleges. She took me to see the room of women artists and painters. She led me to one of her favorites, the self- portrait done by Ellen Day Hale in 1885. She explained a bit about the confident, defiant, almost confrontational gaze, of Ms. Hale, and explained that as a female impressionist of the time, Ms. Hale was pushing the boundaries both in her art and in the depiction of herself. Hale was one of a handful of women then, who created compelling self- portraits in which they fearlessly presented themselves as individuals willing to flout social codes, and challenge accepted ideas of women’s place in society. Through the use of promiscuous bangs, the strong hand seen forefront, the use of dark colors, and also inserting the ostrich-feather fan, Ms. Hale presented (in her own words) “an original and queer” representation of herself.
A woman ahead of her time.
I believe playwright Caryl Churchill and impressionist painter Ellen Day Hale, have much in common.
(Director of ESCAPED ALONE, Sheryl Stoodley)
