College of DuPage drama presents a world out balance

The world is disturbingly out of balance when "The Skriker" takes center stage this month at the College of DuPage McAninch Art Center's Playhouse Theatre, 525 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn.

Presented by the COD College Theatre, performances of the show written by Caryl Churchill are at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 16-26.

Directed by COD Professor of Theater Amelia Barrett, the show contains strong language and subject matter that may not be suitable for younger or more sensitive theater goers.

In "The Skriker," Churchill takes a surreal, ageless shape shifter drawn from obscure British folklore and brings it into the present to deliver a message about a world out of balance. The skriker appears and torments the human souls she seduces and seeks to imprison in the underworld: a teenage mental patient, accused of killing her newly born baby and her pregnant best friend.

"'The Skriker' begs the social question: Am I mad, or is the world I live in mad? Am I responsible, or are the people that came before me accountable? What is real - my perception or what I can touch?" Barrett says. "Answers are determined by perspective, which changes when you look in the mirror, or consider perspectives in 100 years or beyond. While the answer might never be finalized, one must determine how to move forward."

"The Skriker" has been described as one of the strangest and cruelest plays written by Churchill, presenting a world filled with the supernatural, the harsh, and the coldblooded.

The show premiered in 1994 at London's Royal National Theatre and made its 1996 American debut at New York's Joe Papp Public Theatre starring Jayne Atkinson, Caroline Seymour, Angie Phillips and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, dramatization of the abuses of power, and exploration of sexual politics.

The cast hails from 19 towns, including Bensenville, Bloomingdale, Brookfield, Burr Ridge, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Hanover Park, Itasca, LaGrange, Lisle, Lombard, Naperville, Plainfield, Roselle, Streamwood, West Chicago, Warrenville and Wheaton. Incarnations of Skriker will be played by 13 actors.

Tickets are $14. For tickets or more information, call (630) 942-4000 or visit www.atthemac.org.