For three decades, Caryl Churchill has been turning British theatre on its head. Yet, for the past three years, she has gone to ground. With a sudden spate of revivals and new work in the offing, the playwright granted David Benedict a rare interview to explain why

You come back from a long absence to discover that, while you've been away, your little daughter has grown up into Margaret Hilda Roberts. A joyless go-getter, she mounts her soapbox and shrilly inveighs against your way of life which, indeed, has owed little to the dictates of strict Methodism but has, at least, provided the earnings that have paid for her education. This nightmare scenario has not been prompted by Clare Short's recent, infectiously happy experience of discovering a Tory-inclined son. Rather, it's what springs to mind watching Neil Bartlett's very interesting revival of Mrs Warren's Profession, the Shaw play in which a 22-year-old Newnham graduate, Vivie Warren, rejects her mother when she learns that her money is made from a syndicate of brothels.

There's a school of Broadway writing that has a wise crack dispenser and an audience ingratiation manual where it's heart should be. On the evidence of The Sisters Rosensweig , which had its British premiere at Greenwich two years ago, it seemed that Wendy Wasserstein was of this ilk. The Heidi Chronicles, an earlier play now unveiled in David Taylor's engaging production at the same address, suggests that we'll have to revise that estimate. It reveals a less slick and much more likeable side to Wasserstein's talent.

The future looked bleak when the Soho Theatre Company was evicted from its Cockpit home. But an ambitious scheme has given it new life. By David Benedict

Sarah Kane's first play, 'Blasted', provoked outrage over its portrayal of sex and violence. Now she's updating Greek myth, and promising more of the same.

The Hothouse Harold Pinter delivers a knockout comic performance which exists somewhere between John Cleese and Arthur Lowe in this splendid revival of his early play. Great support from Celia Imrie (with Pinter, right) and Tony Haygarth. Comedy Theatre, London

Early days: After being the artistic director of the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh he and William Gaskill founded the hugely influential Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1974, killed off by the Arts Council in the late Eighties in one of their most foolish moves. The company pioneered a collaborative workshop approach to playwriting with Stafford-Clark encouraging an entire generation of writers including Caryl Churchill (Cloud Nine) and David Hare (Fanshen).

Life swaps

The 1995 Wish List: Helen Mirren, as rumoured, will star opposite Patrick Stewart in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

As the new pounds 50,000 Peggy Ramsay Play Award is announced, five established playwrights recall how Ramsay - formidable, infuriating, forthright, the scourge of their families, the blessing of their careers - set them on the right path. Interviews by Sabine Durrant.

Kathryn Hunter was the chameleon star of Theatre de Complicite's 1990 hit, Help, I'm Alive]. By turns a pathetic old woman lamenting the departure of her son, a young girl in search of excitement, swinging precariously from a bar and taking an unhealthy interest in her knickers, and a fat, lecherous mafioso, scratching his crotch in anticipation of money and sex, she riveted attention. Her tiny body seemed both immensely supple and slightly askew, her use of movement at once acrobatically skilled and utterly un-English. There was something exotic and mysterious about her.

There aren't many trophies to be won in drama publishing, but Nick Hern's tiny enterprise, Nick Hern Books, has just bagged one - Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year. No glittering statuette or ritzy ceremony - just a cheque for pounds 1,000 and an inner glow - but Hern is delighted. 'It's amazing that someone has noticed us,' he says. 'The 'Small' still rankles a bit, but with only two people on staff, I can't really quibble.'

AUSTIN is a mild-mannered young screenwriter, the kind who listens attentively in script conferences and never misses a deadline. His brother Lee is a wild original: he steals for a living, makes 'good money' out of his pit bull terrier, roams the desert. Doing what?

THE DEVIL: That is the will of God.