Caryl Churchill: Playwright stripped of theater award

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Playwright Caryl Churchill at a theater rehearsal in 2014

Photo: ArenaPAL / ullstein picture

The award of the British Caryl Churchill with the European Playwrights Prize is withdrawn because of anti-Semitism allegations against the author.

After further deliberation, the jury decided on Monday to "withdraw its decision and not to award the European Dramatist Prize this year," said Schauspiel Stuttgart on Tuesday.

Information had become known over the weekend "that the jury had not previously received".

It was only in April that the jury set up by Schauspiel Stuttgart awarded Churchill the 2022 prize for her complete works.

The prize has been awarded every two years since 2020 and is endowed with 75,000 euros.

The jury includes the artistic director of the Maillon theater in Strasbourg, Barbara Engelhardt, the theater critic of Die Zeit, Peter Kümmel, the artistic director of the Berlin Schaubühne, Thomas Ostermeier, and Petra, the state secretary in the Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts in Baden-Württemberg Olschowski.

The jury is chaired by the author Peter Michalzik

The jury, according to the statement from the Schauspiel Stuttgart, now has knowledge of the author's signatures in connection with the Israel boycott movement BDS.

“There's also the play 'Seven Jewish Children', which can come across as anti-Semitic.

To their great regret, the jury therefore decided not to award the prize this year.« In 2020, the first European Playwright Prize went to the Lebanese-Canadian author and director Wajdi Mouawad.

»Time for a reevaluation and reconsideration«

The award, sponsored by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts and one of the most valuable prizes in European theatre, was to be presented to the 84-year-old British writer on November 20 in the Stuttgarter Schauspielhaus.

In its original award statement, the jury praised Churchill's "extremely committed work": In her numerous plays, she "sharply worked out different power structures".

Her plays are "known, but not famous" and are only rarely played.

"Time for a reassessment and reconsideration," the rationale ended.

more on the subject

• Author close to BDS: Central Council of Jews considers Nobel Prize award for Annie Ernaux to be “disturbing”

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Allegations of anti-Semitism against Annie Ernaux

• No more support: USA classifies Israel boycott movement BDS as anti-Semitic

Churchill became known in the 1980s with feminist and left-wing plays such as »Top Girls« (1982) and »Serious Money« (1987) and is considered an important author in British theater.

Many of her dramas premiered at London's Royal Court Theater;

In 2003, her play »The Copies«, which dealt with human cloning, came out at the Schaubühne in Berlin.

The premiere of the six-page, ten-minute short drama »Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza« caused a scandal in 2009 at the Royal Court Theatre.

Many critics described the sequence of scenes, which deals with the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, as anti-Semitic and criticized the anti-Jewish clichés portrayed in the play.

On the other hand, some colleagues, such as the US playwright Tony Kushner, who was Jewish himself, defended Churchill's play as an allegedly necessary provocation.

The fact that Caryl Churchill supports not only BDS, but also the equally controversial "Palestine Solidarity Campaign" has been known for many years, as has the dispute over "Seven Jewish Children" - in this respect, the jury appointed by the Stuttgarters could have known about it early on.

hpi/höb/dpa