Here We Go by Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill's short play confronts the theme of death in a clever and innovative way. The structure of the play allows for the interpretation to be very open, will you have three performers… or eight? The choice is yours.

The text is very short but the dialogue allows for physicality and the play can easily be performed to last 45 minutes. This is a great play to explore interpretation: it is split into four scenes and the nature of the dialogue means that the performers or director can choose who says what, as there are no designated characters.

The first scene, ‘Here we go’, is made up of choppy dialogue that on first read makes little sense, but with clever issuing of lines can create an interesting and fast paced conversation between friends that takes place at a funeral. If used in a classroom, this will allow students to really explore how different interpretations of dialogue can create different meaning. The second part of this scene is made up of short speeches about each character's future death, exploring the idea that life is short and can suddenly come to an end. In the classroom environment these could be used to explore characterisation and how to create a character in a short space of time with a real focus on voice and movement. The beauty of this scene is that it is left to the discretion of the reader as to where these short speeches take place within the obscure dialogue.

The second scene, ‘After’, is a beautifully written monologue which could be used for students to really explore language. Caryl Churchill uses no punctuation in this long extract and this allows for a real exploration of what is being said and why she has done this, allowing students to discuss what the language means and how it should be delivered.

The third and final scene, ‘Getting there’, is made up purely of stage directions, this gives the opportunity to explore how physicality can be used in an interesting way to tell a story. With a play that is only 19 pages long, it is the creativity that turns this into a 45 minute performance. This play explores how non-verbal communication can be used to captivate an audience and is a stark reminder of the fragility of life.