Top Girls by Carly Churchill. Methuen

Writer Caryl Churcill. Image free on Flickr by Huntington Theatre Company 

Key words

Feminist, Feminism, Socialist, Socialism, Capitalist, Capitalism, 
Eighties, 80s, 1980s, Thatcher, Changing times, Equality, Inequality, Class, History, Women, Women's independence Time Early 1980s

Accents London, East Anglian, 

Place London, Ipswich, Purgatory

Set A restaurant, Office of ‘Top Girls’ 

recruitment agency building, a family home

Specificity Act one is flexible as it could be in any restaurant anywhere there are geographic reference to London but the play has a flexibility to it in terms of accents and setting because the message content is written to be heard by many types of audiences.

Characters (7 female)

Note: 7 females are to play 16 characters 

Marlene 30-40

Isabella Bird, Joyce, Mrs Kidd 38-45

Lady Ninjo, Win 30-40

Dull Gret, Angie 16-20

Pope Joan, Louise 25-35

Patient Griselda, Nell, Jenine 20-30

Waitress, Kit, Shona 16-20 (must be young looking to play Kit, a 12 year old)

Synopsis

“The play world of Top Girls is a world of women’s experience shown from a modern point of view...They all speak the language of today” (Churchill, pg xxiv-xxv,  1982 student edition)

The play is an exploration of changing times and attitudes towards women, about women and through women, making it feministic in content.

The play starts in a restaurant but the company are all dead which suggests it’s in heaven/hell/purgatory or some other unspecified place. We are introduced to six influential historical figures, all women, Pope Joan, Isabella Bird, Lady Ninjo, Dull Gret and Griselda. The figures proceed to swap testimonies about there live and journey, specific to their own struggles as women. 

As the play progresses it is brought right up to the present time in which the play is mainly set, the 1980s. 

The play focuses on strength, independence, empowerment, class, choice, aspirations, power which many of the women were deprived of in the previous scene with the historical figures.

There are no men in the play. Women interview women, women want to advance, women get jobs over men, women are single parents,  some are left behind with kids whilst others want a career, families, love and relationships aren’t important anymore.

It becomes apparent that Marlene single and ambitious women gave her child, Angie away to her sister, Joyce in order to have a career. As a result Joyce never feels like she is Joyce’s mother, Angie suspects that Joyce isn’t her real mother and Marlene is deemed as the cool Auntie because of the exciting lifestyle she lives. 

The play is an important piece of writing, highlighting the fight for and development of equality. The play still holds huge relevance today showing Churchill’s innate ability to cut to the heart of issues surrounding social inequality.

Monologues and duologues etc...

Note: in the opening Act there are many interruptions of natural conversation that break up potential monologues. With the cutting of other characters dialogue, there is there potential for some excellent female speeches.

Pages 27-28 (3 mins). In this monologue Gret discusses her experience after she died. She discusses her experience of Hell “ We come in to Hell in a big mouth”.

Pages 33-41 (5 mins) Angie, 16 is playing with her younger friend Kit, 12. In this duologue the girls tease each other, play fight, but mostly it highlights Angie’s lack of respect for her “mother” Joyce, representing the changing times. Angie at times talks very negatively about Joyce and praises her Auntie. 

Angie knows that Joyce isn’t her mother saying “I think I’m my aunts child, I think my mother is really my aunt” 

Pages 51-52 (3 mins). Louise is stuck, her monologue reflects the inequality as a woman in the workplace. Adding that there are men less bright who she trained who have risen above her purely because of their gender. Note: the Monologue needs merging, but works really well.

Page 63 (1 1/2 mins). Louise gives a monologue about her amazing and successful  life. This of course is a lie, turning in to the worst interview spiel anyone has heard for a while.  It is comedic and when discovered that it’s lie would produce laughter in the audience 

Page 65 (1 1/2 mins). Win is a babbler, her monologue discusses her advancement in life, her relationship woes and her impulsive woes. It’s comedic

Other Plays

Love and Information, Escaped Alone, Cloud 9

Written by Josh Ashley-Smith

Bibliography: Top Girls?