Top Girls

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Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It depicts the life of Marlene, a hard-bitten career woman who is employed at the 'Top Girls' employment agency, and her interactions with her family she left behind. Marlene left her working class background to pursue financial success, leaving her illegitimate child with her apparently infertile sister, Joyce.

During the 2007-2008 New York theatre season, Manhattan Theatre Club presented the play at the Biltmore Theatre in a production starring Mary Catherine Garrison, Mary Beth Hurt, Jennifer Ikeda, Elizabeth Marvel, Martha Plimpton, Ana Reeder, and Marisa Tomei. The production is directed by frequent Churchill collaborator James Macdonald. The MTC production marked the Broadway premiere of "Top Girls".

1 Themes
2 Style
3 Characters
4 Plot synopsis
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Themes

The play is set in Britain and implicitly condemns the increasing incidence of Thatcherite values in society, and especially their effect on Feminism. Churchill has stated that the play was inspired by her conversations with American feminists: it comments on the contrast between American feminism, which celebrates individualistic women who acquire power and wealth, and British socialist feminism, which involves collective group gain. In addition, there is also a commentary on Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister, who also celebrated individualism and believed in Reaganomics. Marlene the tough career woman is portrayed as soulless, exploiting other women and suppressing her own caring instincts in the cause of success. The play argues against the style of feminism that simply turns women into new patriarchs and argues for a more socialist feminism that is about caring for the weak and downtrodden. The play questions whether it is possible for women in society to combine a successful career with a thriving family life.

[edit] Style

The play is famous for its dreamlike opening sequence in which Marlene meets famous women from history, including Pope Joan, who, disguised as a man, is thought to have been pope between 854-856; the explorer Isabella Bird; Dull Gret the harrower of Hell; Lady Nijo, the Japanese mistress of an emperor and later a Buddhist nun; and Patient Griselda, the patient wife from The Clerk's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. All of these characters behave like a gang of city career women out on the town and get increasingly drunk and maudlin, as it is revealed that each has suffered in similar ways.

The stories of the historical women parallel the characters in the modern-day story. For example, Bird, like Marlene, got to where she was by leaving her sister to deal with family matters. Dull Gret's monosyllabic inarticulacy is comparable to Angie's. Some of these parallels are emphasised by the actors doubling the roles of the historical and modern characters.

The structure of the play is unconventional (non-linear). In Act I, scene 1, Marlene is depicted as a successful businesswoman, and all her guests from different ages celebrate her promotion in the 'Top Girls' employment agency. In the next scene we jump to the present (early 80s) where we see Marlene at work in the surprisingly masculine world of the female staff of the agency, in which the ladies of 'Top Girls' must be tough and insensitive in order to compete with men. In the same act, the audience sees Angie's angry, helpless psyche and her loveless relationship with Joyce, whom the girl hates and dreams of killing. Only in the final scene, which takes place a year before the office scenes, does the audience hear that Marlene, not Joyce, is Angie's mother. This notion, as well as the political quarrel between the sisters shifts the emphasis of the play and formulates new questions.

[edit] Characters

Marlene
Isabella Bird
Pope Joan
Lady Nijo
Dull Gret
Patient Griselda
Joyce
Angie
Win
Kit
Nell
Mrs. Kidd
Louise

[edit] Pope Joan

Pope Joan is one of Marlene's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1, and the fourth to arrive. Pope Joan is somewhat aloof, making relevant, intelligent declarations throughout the conversation. When the topic turns to religion, she cannot help but point out heresies—herself included—though she does not attempt to convert the others to her religion. Joan reveals some of her life. She began dressing as a boy at age twelve so she could continue to study; she lived the rest of her life as a man, though she had male lovers. Joan was eventually elected pope. She became pregnant by her chamberlain lover and delivered her baby during a papal procession. For this, Joan was stoned to death. At the end of the scene, Joan recites a passage in Latin.^[1] Like all the dinner guests, Joan's life and attitude reflects something about Marlene.

[edit] Dull Gret

The character, Dull Gret, is based on the subject of the painting Dulle Griet by Pieter Breughel. The subject is a woman wearing an apron and armed with tools of male aggression - armor, helmet, and sword. Leading a mob of other women dressed in aprons, she charges into Hell fighting the devils and filling her basket with gold cups. Throughout most of the dinner scene, Dull Gret has little to say, and often says only crude remarks, such as "Bastard" and "Big cock", when she does say something. She also steals food, stuffing it in her apron for later. However, at the end of the scene, Gret finally shares something about herself.

[edit] Lady Nijo

Lady Nijo is a thirteenth century Japanese concubine who enters the play near the beginning of act one and proceeds to tell her tale. As the most materialistic of the women, Nijo continually references the worth of clothes within her society, regarding them above intelligence and independence as signs of status and power. Churchill creates in Nijo a strong character who, in contradiction to Isabella, is affected more by the period of time before she becomes a wandering nun, than the time she spends as a holy woman. We are lead to believe it is her social conditioning that Churchill is condemning, not her character, as she is brought up in such a way that she cannot even recognise her own prostitution..

[edit] Patient Griselda

Patient Griselda is one of Marlene’s dinner guests in act one. She is the last to show up to the party, so Marlene and the other characters in the scene order without her. Historically, Griselda first came into existence when Chaucer created her for a story in the Canterbury Tales called “Clerks Tale.” In Chaucer’s tale, and also in Top Girls, Griselda is chosen to be the wife of the Marquis even though she is only a poor peasant girl. The one condition that he gives her is that she must promise to always obey him. After they have been married for several years, Griselda gives birth to a baby girl. When the baby turns six weeks old the Marquis tells Griselda that she has to give it up, so she does. Four years later Griselda gives birth to a son. She has to also give this child up after two years because it angers the other members of the court. Twelve years after she gave up her last child, the Marquis tells her to go home, which she obeys.^[2] The Marquis then comes to Griselda’s father’s house and instructs her to start preparing his palace for his wedding. Upon her arrival she sees a young girl and boy and it is revealed that these are her children. All of this suffering was a trial to test her obedience to the Marquis.^[3] When she recounts her tale at dinner with the other women it appears in an accurate but slightly shortened form. At dinner with Marlene, Griselda says that she understands her husband’s need for complete obedience, but it would have been nicer if he had not done what he did. She spends much of her time defending her husband’s actions against Lady Nijo’s accusations concerning his character.

[edit] Isabella Bird

Isabella Bird is the first dinner guest to arrive at Marlene’s celebration. In real life as discussed throughout the first act of the play Isabella is a world traveler. What the play does not mention is that she wrote several books, including An English Woman In America, A Lady’s Life In The Rocky Mountains, and Among the Tibetans. Her adventures take her to all corners of the world. At dinner Isabella tells everyone that she was first instructed to travel by a doctor who thought it would improve her poor health. Following this advice she took her first trip, a sea voyage to America in 1854. As mentioned in the play, she lived with her mother and her younger sister for a long time, Henrietta Bird, who she often talks about with great affection throughout the dinner party. She also mentions Jim Nugent at the party, a man with whom she spent quite a bit of time in America. Outside of the play, Jim was in love with Isabella but she never paid attention to his advances. In real life she once wrote in a letter to her sister “He is a man any woman might love, but no sane woman would marry.” Jim would later be found murdered. Isabella is an interesting character at the dinner party in the play, because she seems to have the most in common with Marlene. Isabella, like Marlene, did not marry young because of her career, but later married Dr. John Bishop, who died two days before their 5th anniversary. She refers to him as "my dear husband the doctor" but, despite her love for her husband, is still disappointed with marriage itself ("I did wish marriage had seemed more of a step"). Isabella gets the last words in act 1 and continues to discuss her final travels to Morocco.

[edit] Plot synopsis

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The play opens with Marlene in a restaurant, waiting for her friends to arrive. The dinner is celebrating a promotion Marlene received at her job at an employment agency. As the women arrive and settle into their dinner, they begin talking about their past lives and what they did. Nijo recalls how she came to meet the ex-Emperor of Japan, and her encounter with him. While the women assume that she was raped by him, she later explains that it was her destiny; she was brought up for that purpose. Within the context of Pope Joan's narrative, the women discuss religion. At this point the waitress, who punctuates the scene with interruptions, has already brought the starter and is preparing to serve the main courses. All the women except Marlene discuss their dead lovers. They also recall the children that they bore and subsequently lost. Nijo’s baby was of royal blood, so he couldn’t be seen with her. Pope Joan was stoned to death when it was discovered that she had given birth and was therefore female and committing heresy. Griselda was told that her two children had been killed, in a cruel test of her loyalty to her husband. After dessert, the women sit drinking brandy, unconsciously imitating their male counterparts.

In act two scene one, Marlene is back at the agency, this time attending to a girl named Jeanine, who is looking for a job there. Marlene takes a fancy to her even though she seems lost and helpless. She doesn’t know what type of job she wants--only that she wants to travel and be with her husband. In the next scene they are in Joyce’s backyard, with both Angie and Kit playing around. Angie is always looking for arguments and never cleans her room. She and Kit begin arguing and Angie makes a statement that she is going to kill her mom. Kit doesn’t believe her, then they start talking about sex and Angie says to Kit that her mother does it with everyone. The truth of the matter is that neither of them know what they are talking about; they are 16 and 12 Angie being the oldest. In the third scene, they are all in the “Top Girls” employment agency and two workers Nell and Win are talking about the latest office gossip, until Marlene walks in and begins to talk to them in a friendly manner. This agency is about recruiting girls, giving them secure jobs, Win and Nell get into talking about how booked the agency is for people coming in for interviews. Win beings to talk to Louise on why after all those years at working in the agency she is deciding to quit. Louise decides not to respond but then opens up to her saying how she dedicated her life to the agency, working evenings not having a social life. Now she is 46, no husband or life, just the agency, the most important reason of all is that throughout her entire career she has trained men on and off and they have all been promoted first than her, she has had the same job for 20 years and nobody seems to appreciate it. Win understands her position and regrets she’s leaving them. It then switches to Marlene’s office where little Angie comes in saying that she took the bus and she wants to stay at Marlene’s place overnight. They get interrupted by Mrs. Kidd, the wife of Howard, the guy who was also trying to get the top position. Mrs. Kidd beings talking about how much the job means to her husband, how devastated he is, and how is it possible for a woman to have a man’s job. She in essence tells Marlene to step down and let her husband have the job instead. Marlene does not take this too well and responds aggressively, telling her to “piss off". Later on in the day, Nell gets a visit from Shona who presents her resume which later Nell discovers to be all lies and that she is dealing with an under aged girl, who has no idea of what she is doing. At the same time Angie is with Win having a conversation about Angie's aunt and Win’s life. Angie falls asleep and Nell comes in with the news that Howard had a heart attack. Marlene is informed and she doesn’t seem to care much about it, responding “Lucky he didn’t get the job if that’s what his health's like”.

The last act takes place a year earlier in Joyce’s kitchen. Marlene, Joyce, and Angie share stories with each other. Angie is very happy that her aunt is there, since she looks up to her and thinks that she is wonderful. When Angie goes to bed, Marlene pulls a bottle of whisky out of her bag to drink with Joyce. This shows the contrast in her character, as she is an upper class business women however she still has her lower class traits. They later discuss what is to become of Angie. Joyce tells Marlene that Angie is not bright at all and she will never accomplish anything. Marlene replies by saying that she runs her down too much. Later in this scene the audience is informed that Angie is actually Marlene's daughter. This knowledge explains Joyce's resentment as she lost a baby because she was looking after Angie. This non linear structure makes the audience think about the play after it has finished because it makes them realise a lot of the emotions and lack of emotions that Marlene in particular shows.