Top Girls
Top Girls,a play by Caryl Churchill , first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1982 . The first act is set in a London restaurant as Marlene celebrates her promotion as managing director of the ‘Top Girls’ employment agency: her guests are five historical and quasi-historical characters, Isabella Bird , the 13th-cent. Japanese courtesan Lady Nijo , Dull Gret (who is drawn from an image in a Bruegel painting), Pope Joan , and Patient Griselda . The second and third acts, which move between the agency office and the poor East Anglian home of Marlene's sister, reveal the hard choices Marlene has made to achieve her success, which include the loss of her illegitimate and slow-witted daughter Angie to her childless sister Joyce. Each member of the all-female cast (apart from Marlene) plays several parts. The play explores the changing social, sexual, and above all financial expectations of British women in the 1980s,...
[The entire page is 165 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
