Caryl Churchill Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Rosalind Carne

Critical Essay by Rosalind Carne

So intent is [Churchill in Softcops] on stating her message that every whiff of humour is imbued with a grim sense of its sinister implications…. [The] result is one of the least enjoyable evenings I can remember in three years' regular theatregoing. Enjoyment may not be mandatory, but there are few compensatory factors in Softcops; it keeps you guessing, and hoping, but consistently fails to provide what it promises…. [When] I left the theatre I felt as if I'd been mentally battered with a blunt instrument. (pp. 30-1)

In a succession of loosely connected episodes, which acts like an ironic moral pageant, the treatment of crime is seen as a form of mass entertainment, part of a government plan to mystify and depoliticise the criminal process. The cast of 12 men take turns at representing the many faces of Vidocq in short sketches, supplemented with cabaret-style exhibitions of torture, execution,...
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