Escaped Alone and What If If Only review – a dislocating Caryl Churchill evening of two halves

The Guardian

16-02-2025

Escaped Alone (2016) is first in this double bill of short plays by the veteran dramatist Caryl Churchill, directed by Sarah Frankcom, the Royal Exchange's former artistic director. Three women occupy chairs on a square of grass; Churchill's text states they are 'at least 70'. A fourth woman (similar age) introduces the action: 'I'm walking down the street…' Seeing the others, she enters the garden and is greeted as Mrs Jarrett.
At the close of the play, Mrs Jarrett leaves the others as she found them and, walking out through the auditorium, tells us: 'And then I said thanks for the tea and went home.' In between, the four pass the time chasing conversation topics, jibing, sharing memories, singing a song from their youth. Their disjointed dialogue feels stage-artificial, lacking the character-revealing crafting of close observers of suburban life (Alans Ayckbourn and Bennett, or Victoria Wood, for instance).
The characters' inner selves are presented in monologues that offer cliches of older women. Two are fearful (cats, open spaces; Margot Leicester and Souad Faress, respectively), one is haunted by memories (of a dark deed – moving writing powerfully delivered by Annette Badland). Mrs Jarrett is of the 'doomed, we're all doomed' type (Maureen Beattie, deploying broad Scots to effect); her seven solos deliver verbal visions of dystopian apocalypse that sound like schlock-to-the-max blockbusters (backed by a rumbling soundscape from Nicola T Chang). The pleasure of the 55-minute performance lies in the acting.
What If If Only (2021), at about 30 minutes, is more interesting and more emotionally engaging, centring on the grief of an individual following the death of their partner.
A young woman (Danielle Henry) enters a sitting room strewn with books, records, pamphlets (revealed in a coup de théâtre by designer Rose Revitt, not to be spoiled by description). She looks through a box of photographs, talks to an empty chair – not empty to her, who sees in memory the lover who has died.
She is visited by the ghosts of futures that might have been, the personifications of 'what if, if only' possibilities. First, and most insistent, is self-proclaimed 'brilliant future' (Badland), followed by a crowd of clamouring Futures (excellent community cast). Having shaken them off, she is confronted by the Present (Lamin Touray), who introduces her to, and invites her to choose, Child Future (Bea Glancy – wickedly vivid and a talent to watch).
At the end, as at the beginning, the mourner looks through photos and talks to the empty space in the chair. Externally, nothing is different; yet this well-crafted, life-opening drama, beautifully directed and performed, has subtly changed us all.
Star ratings (out of five) Escaped Alone ★★★ What If If Only ★★★★
Escaped Alone and What If If Only are at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, until 8 March