The title comes from The Bible’s ‘Book of Job’, wherein a servant of Job arrives to tell his master some very bad news. Herman Melville uses the full quote – “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee” – to introduce his epilogue to Moby Dick.“The drama’s done,” Melville continues. “Why then here does any one step forth?- Because one did survive the wreck.” (Meaning Ishmael, that epic tale’s narrator.)

In Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone, it is Mrs Jarrett who tells the tales, first of her chance encounter with three women she had seen before, who invite her to join them for tea and chat in the lee of a very high fence. 

Deliciously liquid music by Gareth Farr has introduced this Susan Wilson-directed production: Circa’s second contribution to WTF! The Women’s Theatre Festival 2017. The three women are already settled in Sally’s back yard when Mrs J happens by.

The chat – mostly between Sally (Irene Wood), Vi (Carmel McGlone) and Lena (Jane Waddell) – seems idle at first, about an adventurous grandchild, a marriage that’s lasted 20 years … Names bounce about suggesting networks of relationships in the world beyond this yard.

Then a chill wind blows and Mrs Jarrett (Ginette McDonald) escapes alone to a pool of light to regale us with the first of many apocalyptic scenarios: man-made catastrophes involving sliding earth, flooding water, toxic air, fire, hunger, sugar …

Is she a compulsive doom merchant, addicted to dystopian sci-fi novels, or a latter-day Cassandra, foretelling looming futures we refuse to believe? Although they are extraordinarily bizarre, we cannot help but recognise key causal factors: corporate greed, our insatiable appetite for ‘reality’ entertainment and cooking shows … Who doesn’t believe – to take but one example – that if the air became too toxic to breathe there’d be a six-month wait for gas-masks unless you had private insurance, in which case you’d get a choice of colours?

Meanwhile it emerges Sally and Lena are trapped by hidden fears and phobias while Vi, who has been ‘away’ for six years, is coping with the horrors that continue to flow from her very real actions. Each gets to escape alone into a pool of light in which they too can share their deeper truths.

On the surface the mood is light, as befits a gathering over a cuppa. As with any truth-based drama, especially when performed by a cast of seasoned professionals such as this, humour ripples throughout. They even break into a delighted and delightful rendition of ‘Da do ron ron’. (The script doesn’t specify which song, apparently, but this was the choice for the Royal Court Theatre premiere, just last year. As a simplistic ‘girl meets boy’ song with a nonsense chorus, it aptly represents the romance conditioning these women grew up with.)

Caryl Churchill’s genius is in juxtaposing apparently innocuous everyday chit-chat with apocalyptic scenarios and leaving us to negotiate the space between. All four actors, with their wealth of experience in life and on stage, honour the text with a deep-felt subtlety that draws us into Churchill’s themes, leaving us to interrogate ourselves about our own responses to this world, our place in it, our roles in affecting it future.  

Marcus McShane’s lighting, Sheila Horton’s costume coordination and Gareth Farr’s music and sound design all support the subtly wrought richness. The sound bridges of weather, heavy traffic and aeroplanes, astutely remind us of the world beyond the wall in John Hodgkins’ functional set.

Need I add this is a play for everyone: all genders and age groups? We all have more in common than not and we all share this one planet.

If you don’t identify directly with any of the states the four women are in, or recognise inescapable truths in Mrs J’s scenarios, or share the deep-set anger that drives them, then you alone have escaped life’s harsh realities. 

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