Light Shining in Buckinghamshire | |
---|---|
Written by | Caryl Churchill |
Date premiered | September 1976 |
Place premiered | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh |
Original language | English |
Setting | 1647 England |
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is a play by British playwright Caryl Churchill written in 1976.[1]
The play is set during the English Civil War and part of it dramatises the Putney Debates.[2] Characters include Diggers, Levellers and Ranters.[3] Their idealism is contrasted with the pragmatism of Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton.[4]
The play was Churchill's first collaboration with the Joint Stock Theatre Company.[5] The title is taken from a Digger pamphlet More Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.[6] In 2008, Mark Ravenhill wrote in The Guardian, "Written for the leftwing company Joint Stock, the play charts the disintegration of radical political possibilities during the English civil war, skilfully balancing individual and communal experiences. It is a play that is rich in language: prayer, debate, ecstatic meetings, the stumbling attempts of the newly empowered to find a voice."[7]