[citation needed] The Skriker opened in January 1994 in London at the National Theatre's Cottesloe auditorium, starring Kathryn Hunter, Sandy McDade, and Jacqueline Defferary, and was directed by Les Waters.
Cast: Jayne Atkinson (the Skriker), Angie Phillips (Lily), Caroline Seymour (Rosie); April Armstrong, Marc Calamia, Rene M. Ceballos, Torrin T. Cummings, Kate Egan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jodi Melnick, Ric Oquita, Diana Rice, Valda Setterfield, Jack Shamblin, Doug Von Nessen, Sturgis Warner.
[citation needed] In November 2006, The Virtual Theatricality Lab at Henry Ford College staged the play using 3D stereo digital technology and motion capture to create the scenery, creatures and fairies.
[3] Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and the Royal Exchange Theatre, the production included Laura Elsworthy as Josie, Juma Sharkah as Lily.
[citation needed] The production was self-directed and starred Meg Lebow as Josie, Sophie Cameron as Lily, and Aziza Afzal, Emma Bergman, and Clare Lefebure as the Skriker.
[4] One of the play's most unusual features is its eponymous protagonist's language, Graham Wolfe has drawn connections with Lacan's lalangue, which Mladen Dolar defines as “the concept of what in language makes puns possible”:[5] "For all the Skriker’s monstrous malevolence, such an admirer of homonyms ('sham pain', 'morning becomes electric') could hardly scoff at Lacan, whose later seminars bear such titles as Les non-dupes errent (les nommes du père) and Encore (en-corps, en coeur), confronting us with creatures named parlêtre (par la lettre) and sinthome (symptom, synthetic homme, saint Thomas).
Gerard wrote that "Churchill gives the Skriker a kind of sing-song doggerel that is quite deceptive: Try to parse it and you’re lost; let it wash over you however, and you will be drawn inexorably into a world that turns every notion of home, safety and comfort inside out.
"[12] Jon Kaplan, who saw a 2014 production by Daniel Pagett, argued in Now that Churchill embeds a "bubbling pot of themes in language that's challenging, impressionistic and occasionally dense, using wit and associative wordplay to move the ideas forward."
"[13] Susannah Clapp of The Guardian awarded Sarah Frankcom's 2015 production four out of five stars, praising the play as prescient and calling the titular character "one of the primary figures of modern theatre."
[16] Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter lauded the titular character as "a terrific creation [...] this densely layered staccato wordplay is a signature of Churchill's canon and always adheres to a loose narrative logic."