The Skriker Actor Packet

THE PRESENT
The purpose of this section is to introduce the historical
context within which Churchill wrote the play "1980s/1990s
Britain#, as this will provide you with the background of the
troubling conditions characters like Josie and Lily encounter
on a daily basis. The policies of Margaret Thatcher, prime
minister of Britain at the time, wielded a great deal of
influence over young, single mothers like Lily and Josie and
their ability to survive in society. Much like the state of the
present, Lily and Josie are the weak and vulnerable !! those
living in the damaged society of broken homes and uphill
battles against the bureaucracy of government aid.
Another topic addressed in this section is Lily’s quest to
protect and save her child. Though the play begins with Josie
having already killed her newborn baby, Lily faces the
struggles that accompany her choice to keep her child
throughout the play. In the following pages you will find
information about the myth of the changeling, modern day
explanations of infanticide, as well as the many scary realities
of motherhood.
"In ki!ing her child && perhaps while under the control of th"
Skriker && Josie has destroyed part of the future. Some hope for
the future sti! exists, however, in the baby to which Lily..gives
birth to...
These two young women are very #ail custodians of the future:
hardly more than children themselves, they are alone”
$Kritzer, “Systemic” 170%.