Fen Review

FEN is a thought-provoking piece, centering on a tight community in the fens of east England. The play suggests at being set in 1980's, and whilst it sounds very 'fluffy bunny-lambs-buttercups-please close the gate' type of play, it is far from it. The play has a very dark side, and deals with issues such as child abuse, suicide, separation, and first and foremost the plight of the farming economy and life in the country.

The playwright is Caryl Churchill, one of the leading feminist writers of recent years. Her most well known play is perhaps Top Girls, her style in many plays, including Fen, is often experimental, and to research Fen she spent a lot of time in the rural parts of Lincolnshire, Cambridge shire and East Anglia. She got to know the people and way of life, and so it is possible that the characters and events in Fen were based on real people. Churchill is reported to have said that out of all of her plays, this is the one, which was based the most on real people and what they had said. As a result, the play is successfully realistic.

The two central characters are Frank and Val. She left her husband to be with Frank, and so is in a plight concerning the custody of her two children. She is desperate to get away from her life on the Fens, and run away with Frank, but her daughters Shona and Deb hold her back. The girl's characters add an interesting childlike perspective on the lifestyle, with innocence in Shona (the younger) and the traumas of growing up from Deb (the elder sister) with insignificant problems meaning the world to her. There is a song sung by the girls, which include lines like:

"I want to be a hairdresser when I grow up,

but I don't really want to leave the

village."

They are brought up with no aspirations, and no opportunities to explore ambition.

At one point Val is about to leave for London, but cannot leave her daughters when it comes down to it.

Frank and Val's scenes are the only ones that require any sort of order, as the rest of the play is episodic and could go anywhere. Their relationship is dark and unstable. Val is a complex character torn between Frank and the girls, and Frank is frustrated with his job, and with Val's indecisiveness.

Other strong characters are Angela, who is forced to be a mother to step daughter Becky while her husband is away, and takes out her frustration on Becky; Shirley, who hides a disturbing past by working herself too hard to forget her pain; and May, Val's mum, who will never