On the heels of her acclaimed production of Hadestown on our stage and her Broadway debut with Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, three-time Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin returns to New York Theatre Workshop with Caryl Churchill’s incisive drama LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. In 1647 England, power is shifting and, amid the chaos and confusion, revolutionaries across the country are dreaming of a new future.

Scenic design by Riccardo Hernández
Costume design by Toni-Leslie James
Lighting design by Isabella Byrd
Sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman
Properties by Noah Mease
Original Music and Music Direction by Orion Stephanie Johnstone
Stage management by Jhanaë K-C Bonnick

Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is an incredibly dense play. And the production at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by the usually brilliant Rachel Chavkin, feels more like two and a half hours of drudgery than it does enjoyable entertainment. Then again, theatre’s sole purpose isn’t always to entertain. If you can glean it from the rapid fire debates, puzzling revelations, and disorienting snippets of story, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire does offer some deep thinking points. The question is whether it’s worth toiling through two and a half hours of bewilderingly experimental theatre to find those points. It’s not all terrible. Cast member Evelyn Spahr is perhaps the best when it comes to reaching into Churchill’s dense script and pulling out something that actually feels human and moving. As a result, her scenes are some of the most accessible – as when she plays a bereaved mother arguing that women are forever cursed because of Eve’s transgression. She also plays a scene as a butcher telling wealthy customers they’ve already eaten their fair share of meat (when so many commoners can’t afford it) and can’t have any more for life. It’s a scene that’s actual …Read more