![]() ![]() Finally, after a very late interval, the final scene unravels the play, and Marlene. Interviews take place, each illuminating some facet of female ambition Angie arrives to see Marlene Marlene says something horrifying while Angie is asleep. In the third scene, we’re at Marlene’s employer, Top Girls, an employment agency staffed by wilfully sharklike women. In scene two, set in rural Norfolk, Marlene’s tomboyish niece Angie (a likeably gauche Liv Hill) dreams of escape to the city. The rest of the scenes are more naturalistic, though there’s something dreamy about their non-linear juxtaposition. This is a good thing: it decentralises the party’s role in the play, gives the whole thing room to breathe more, and makes the excellent Kingsley’s brassy, brittle Marlene more the focus. Turner’s production is probably the first in history to have the resources to not need to double the actors from the party scene with later roles. Compared to the other women’s epic exploits, there is something bathetic about Marlene’s workplace triumph – although as we’ll find out, there’s more to it than that.īut the dinner party isn’t the be all and end all of ‘Top Girls’. And it’s funny: the dialogue is magnificent, as the women talk over each other incessantly, with all sort of politics, prejudices and microaggressions bubbling just beneath the surface. It is serious: each of the women has paid a terrible price for their success in a man’s world. It is, no question, a completely singular piece of writing. Her guests are a series of women from history, both real (Victorian explorer Isabella Bird) and fictional (Pope Joan). ![]() If you know the 1982 play, you’ll know it for the virtuosic opening scene, in which power-suited Thatcherite businesswoman Marlene (Katherine Kingsley) enjoys a boozy dinner to celebrate her recent promotion at work. So this widescreen revival feels like vindication at last. That’s basically ridiculous: an A-Level staple, ‘Top Girls’ is in danger of being more studied than seen. Lyndsey Turner’s revival is only the fourth professional UK production ever, and by far the biggest. Not that there’s ever a bad moment to stage Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’, which really doesn’t get staged nearly as much as its reputation suggests. This is a coincidence, and one doesn’t cancel out the other. This week, it opens a revival of a twentieth-century feminist masterpiece. Recently, the National Theatre sparked a furious backlash when its latest season announcement included no new plays by women. ![]()
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