Top Girls

Synopsis

Investigation of what it takes to get to the top. If you could have dinner with anyone from history, whom would you choose? At Marlene's celebration dinner to mark her promotion to Managing Director of the Top Girls Employment Agency, she has five guests - a Pope, a Warrior, a nineteenth century Traveller, a Japanese Emperor's Courtesan and a Chaucerian Obedient Wife, all from centuries past - sharing a toast.

Our Review:

21 October 2003

Caryl Churchill's landmark play of the 1980's has not been seen widely in the north- west. But can a play about women climbing the corporate ladder against a backdrop of Thatcherism hold much interest for today's audience?

Well, as director Chris Honer says "It is certainly a period piece, coming very much out of that moment in the early 1980s when there was a woman prime minister for the first time." But the issue of motherhood versus career remains evergreen in today's society.

Act one takes place at a dinner involving female guests from the past invited by Marlene - a character from the present. She is a tough modern 1980's go-getter who represents the here and now. The audience eavesdrops on the women's conversations where everything from abortion, feminism and loyalty are covered.

The second and third acts fill in the gaps and bring us back to 1980's Britain under Thatcher's rule. Marlene (Kate Williamson) has just been made Managing Director at...

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