Customer Reviews
Top Play - By: M. Fermor, 19 Mar 2007 
This offering from feminist playwright Caryl Churchill is an uncompromising critique of the capitalist mode of feminism as advocated by the model of the eighties power women, most obviously personified by Margaret Thatcher.
'Top Girls' deploys an interesting technique whereby characters narratives overlap leading to complicated scenarios wherein meaning is lostin the melee of competing voices. It certainly makes for difficult listening or reading but acts uniquely as a physical representation of the interupted & disjointed histories of the women whose situation it aims to ameliorate.
The play is split into three main sections. The first act witnesses the meeting of various fictional & non-fictional characters from history, literature & art at a dinner party. The party has been organised to celebrate the recent career success of central character Marlene. Marlene works for an agency designed to find jobs for women.
The first section reflects the women's various instances of "success" whilst exposing the commonality of their suffering both at the hands of men & indeed at their hands of their own complicity with the phallocentric societiesin which they found themselves.
The next two acts are situatedin the present, within a year of each other, & focus on Marlene's character. This present experience acts as an interesting counterpoint to the dinner-time narratives. It becomes abundantly clear that Marlene too, though ostensibly successful, comes with her own baggage & we are asked to quesiton how far indeed women have come, if at all.
'Top Girls' should not be mistaken for a cynical & negative play: far from it. It's message is that there is hope but only through a socialist ethic of togetherness where the intended output is the common good rather than the elevated succes of the individual. This idea is neatly illustrated by Isabella's illness where she reveals that her head could not be supported by the diseased spine. That is to say, without the foundations of a strong society the most talented & superficially gifted individual cannot truly thrive.
I would recommend it on many levels. On the most basic level it is full of dark humour & the chaotic, drunken opening act is compelling both visually & due to the uinique use of overlapping narratives. Gret will make you smile almost everytime she releases one of her limited utterances while Angie's 'momentary' cannibalism is shocking to the extreme.
However, when revisited you will be able to further plumb its hidden depths & observe admiringly how Churchill subtly weaves her earnest polemic into the fabric of the novel.
Stunning - By: , 07 Jun 2001 This play is amazing! The techniques Churchill uses to keep your interest are interestingin themselves. A fantastic plot that keeps you engrossed. A brilliant play that combines the issues of class & genderin an unusual way. A joy to study, going to see this play is is a must.
Shocking, humourous, serious - all at the same time. - By: , 09 Dec 2000 
Top Girls is one of a number of plays written by the brilliant Caryl Churhill. First performedin the Royal Court Theatre, 1982, the play proved a raging success, also entertaining the Americans when Performedin Joseph Papps Public Theatre New York. Top Girls is a play not neccessarily concerned with providing answers but asking questions, mainly about the rather archaic & unfair patriarchal societyin which all of the womenin this play are living in, or indeed, have lived in. It also deals with certain issues about women & the world of work, & more specifically, the prices that are attatched to personal success & acheivment. Top Girls is a play which delivers the fundamental elements which theatre is based upon, & goes a lot further & deeper than this. It has educational values & an extremely serious aspect to it, but at the same time can be intriguigly entertaining & addictive, so much so that one may feel that they are emotionally dragged into one of the many, sometimes tense, sometimes funny, sometimes shocking conversations between the brilliantly constucted characters.
However, there is an underlying seriousness to the play which Churchill manages to mix well with the half hearted humour evident throughout the play. Her idea of bringing different flavours of women, from past & present, & placing them around a table as she doesin act one, is ambitious to say the least. It does, however, work well, with each character highlighting the changing ideas & themes towards women & oppression. Overall Top Girls is a Top read. Characters are constructed well, & the plot has a somewhat eye opening twist. Would suit anyonein the adult bracket (contains explicit language), who have an interestin the role of womenin society, throughout history.
