Caryl Churchill at 70

'Playwrights don't give answers,' Caryl Churchill has famously said, 'they ask questions' Photograph: David Sillitoe

Churchill's 1979 play Cloud Nine took a satirical swipe at colonialism, explored role reversal and hopped from the Victorian era to the 70s. The play was unveiled at the Royal Court with Julie Convington (left) among the cast Photograph: Nobby Clark/Hulton Archive/Getty

Thea Sharrock directed a revival of Cloud Nine at the Almeida in 2007. Michael Billington described the play as a 'problematic study of sexual politics', and reflected that it 'leaves many of its ideas about moral progress unresolved' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Top Girls (1982) revolved around a dinner party held by the ambitious Marlene, who has just been promoted. Her unlikely guests are Lady Nijo, Isabella Bird, Dull Gret and Patient Griselda. Lesley Manville (second from right, above) played Marlene Photograph: Alastair Muir/Rex Features

A touchstone for the 1980s, Top Girls has been successfully revived several times and remains Churchill's most famous play. In spring 2008 it was seen at Broadway's Biltmore theatre, starring (from left) Ana Reeder, Jennifer Ikeda, Elizabeth Marvel, Marisa Tomei, Mary Catherine Garrison, Mary Beth Hurt and Martha Plimpton Photograph: Joan Marcus/AP

Churchill's Serious Money, performed in 1987, explored the stock market just months before the Wall Street crash of that year Photograph: John Haynes

Far Away debuted at the Royal Court in 2000, directed by Stephen Daldry. This short, sharp shock of a play is famous for a scene in which chained prisoners march across the stage Photograph: Ivan Kyncl

Churchill's A Number, staged at the Royal Court in 2002 with Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, presented a complicated plot concerning a father and his cloned sons. The production was directed by Stephen Daldry Photograph: Ivan Kyncl

A Number was staged off-Broadway in 2005 with Dallas Roberts as the son and Sam Shepard, returning to the New York stage after an absence of 30 years, as the father Photograph: Joan Marcus/AP

Churchill's translation of August Strindberg's A Dream Play opened at the National Theatre's Cottesloe in 2005 alongside a retrospective of Strindberg's paintings at Tate Modern. Directed by Katie Mitchell, the play starred Angus Wright and Susie Trayling (above) Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In 2006, a new Churchill play was staged at the Royal Court. Starring Ty Burrell and Stephen Dillane, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You imagined the relationship between the UK and the US as a homosexual partnership Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Caryl Churchill Readings take place at the Royal Court in London, September 16-26 2008 Photograph: Jane Bown