SOURCE: Weales, Gerald. Review of Mad Forest, by Caryl Churchill. Commonweal 120, no. 1 (15 January 1993): 20.

In the following review, Weales lauds the political satire evident in Churchill's Mad Forest.

In one of the most unusual and quietly theatrical scenes in Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, a vampire, suavely menacing in his stereotypical black cape, carries on a conversation with a dog, played impressively by a naked actor on all fours. These characters—like the Archangel Michael, who appears to a priest, and the dead grandmother with whom one of the characters communicates—are Churchillian reminders that this is not a realistic play although the setting and much of the action (it takes place before, during, and after the 1989 revolution in Romania) are real enough. Nor are these fantasy scenes simply theatrical games as some of the more playful doings in Churchill's popular Cloud Nine seemed to be. They reflect the political...