Far Away (play)

Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The play has four characters, Harper, Young Joan, Joan, and Todd, and is based on the premise of a world in which everything in nature is at war. It is published by Nick Hern Books.

Act 1, Scene 1 begins in Harper's kitchen. It is late. Harper's niece (Young Joan) enters and claims that she can't sleep. After a few attempts by her aunt to get her back in bed, she tells Harper that she just came back in the house after climbing out her window to investigate a sound that she heard. Their conversation continues with Joan telling Harper that she just witnessed her uncle, Harper's husband, loading bloody children and other people into the back of a lorry. After repeated attempts to censor what Joan saw, Harper tells her that he is saving the children and taking them to a safer place. She tells Joan that she can never tell anyone about what she saw because it would put all of their lives in danger. Harper claims they are on the good side and are making the world a better place.

Act 2, Scene 1 is roughly 15 years later in a factory where an adult Joan has just begun her professional career as a milliner. Her co-worker Todd is an established hatter and is experienced in the field. Throughout the scenes you see various days at the factory. The hats that Joan and Todd are making are in various stages of completeness, showing the passage of time. Todd and Joan exchange in basic conversion about this body of work, talking about their previous works. Todd says that the company has been pushing for hats to be created quicker for the parades, stating that they used to have 2 weeks to finish a hat but now they only have 1.

Scene 2: Joan and Todd learn more about each other including a discussion about their current hat designs. Todd brings up a hypothesis that the way the company gets contracts is corrupt, claiming there is a certain person's brother-in-law that is involved. Joan wants to know more, but Todd doesn't want to talk about it at work. Joan changes the topic to not liking to watch the trials at night. Todd says he watches them every night.

Scene 3: Todd and Joan speak about different hat genres (Animal and Abstract). Joan changes the subject and asks why Todd doesn't do something (regarding the corruption). He says he spends days wondering what he should do.

Scene 4: Joan and Todd complement each other on their almost completed hats. Todd claims he is going to talk to "him" (someone working above Todd). He claims that he is going to talk about the brother-in-law and hint at the possibility of leaking information to a friend of his who is a journalist. He claims that if he lost his job, he'd miss her.

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