top girls theatre visit

It would be nice to think that Caryl Churchill's 1982 play, written during the rise of Thatcherism, now looks dated. In fact, it seems terrifyingly topical in its portrait of an individualistic society in which the few thrive at the expense of the many. What has changed, as Max Stafford-Clark's alert and zippy production proves, is the focus of dramatic interest in a play that views the role of women from multiple perspectives.


Top Girls
Minerva,
Chichester
Until 16 July
Box office:
01243 781312
Venue details

Originally we were all dazzled by the bravura opening in which Marlene, newly promoted boss of the Top Girls employment agency, hosts a dinner party for iconic women from history. But, for me, it is Churchill's central act which now hits hardest. That is partly because we see Angie, Marlene's frightened, farmed-out daughter, invading her mother's hyper-efficient territory. But it is even more because we see the agency at work in a series of interviews with job-seeking women. One high-flier is told to conceal her intention to get married; a middle-management veteran reveals how she was leapfrogged by male rivals; and a young dreamer fantasises about life as an expense-account sales rep. These dazzling vignettes get to the heart of the matter, in that they show the obstacles women face, underscoring Churchill's key point that you can't have true feminism without a re-ordering of society.

Even if it's the portrait of the employment process at work that now enthrals, there is still pathos in the final encounter between Marlene and her sister, Joyce, confined to a life of domestic drudgery. I found the device of overlapping dialogue followed by a charged silence a bit overdone; but Suranne Jones captures excellently the hidden regrets of the go-getting Marlene, Stella Gonet seethes with justified rage as her sister and Olivia Poulet is both baffled and touching as the daughter who Marlene has pragmatically discarded. What strikes one most about this co-production between Out of Joint and Chichester is its vivid timeliness, in a world where isolated female success still obscures the plight of the majority.