“Top Girls” starts with a celebration and ends with a question: What is the price of success?
Arizona Repertory Theatre opens the Caryl Churchill play in previews Sunday, Feb. 3. Churchill’s often-complex, always intriguing plays take on issues such as feminism and sexual politics.
In “Top Girls,” it’s 1982 and an ambitious Marlene has received a fancy promotion at work.
To mark her step up in the corporate world, she has a dinner party. The guests: women from history, art and literature who gather around the table and tell their stories.
Among them:
- Pope Joan, who, disguised as a man, is said to have reigned as pope from 854 to 856. She was found out only after she gave birth during a procession.
- Dull Gret, the subject of Pieter Bruegel’s painting “Dulle Griet.” In the painting she has on an apron, with a helmet and armor, and is carrying a sword. She’s leading a group of women to Hell to conquer the devils.
- Isabella Bird was a world explorer in the 19th century and the first woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
- Lady Nijo, a Japanese woman who was a lover to the emperor during the 13th century and later became a Buddhist nun.
- Patient Griselda is a figure from European folklore who appeared in many different stories, including “The Clerk’s Tale” from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.” She was known for her patience and obedience.
The play then focuses on Marlene, whose ambition caused her to leave her daughter with her sister in pursuit of a career. “Top Girls” examines the struggles and inequalities women face in and out of work.
Ms. Magazine called it “top-notch feminist theater.”
And The Guardian found it as relevant now as it was when it was first staged: “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.”
