Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Top Girls. Wow. That brings back quite a few memories. Hours of slogging away over English literature coursework, debating Thatcherism and, slightly stereotypically for a girls’ school, continually discussing feminism. I remember my English teacher telling me the play hadn’t been on stage for years, and probably wouldn’t for quite a while due to the fact the Tories were rising in popularity and the play would seem out-dated and irrelevant.

However, yesterday at the Warwick Arts Centre Top Girls was far from both of these descriptions and seemed to strike a cord with many of the audience. At a time when politics is a heated topic on campus, when students are constantly being told that they have to achieve better and greater things to even think about placing a toe on the job ladder, and a new wave of feminism is finding it’s voice, Top Girls seems to have landed right on it’s feet.

Last summer, the original director Max Stafford-Clark returned to direct one of Caryl Churchill’s most well known plays. Having already had a brilliantly well-received run in Chichester and then, London, it started its tour in our own arts centre.

Usually one of the most talked about Acts of the play is the first, where Churchill brings together six women from different periods to celebrate one’s individual success – Marlene who has just been promoted to Managing Director. Apart from Marlene, the women all have sad and tragic stories to tell so they cut across one another in attempt to make their voices heard. After the initial shock, I quickly remember that Churchill uses this odd stage twist whereby characters continually talk across one another and do not listen to the others, to make her play more realistic. It was an extremely humorous scene and what, for me, made it so affective was that it truly depicted a day-to-day dinner party where many people are talking all at once. The audience almost felt they were witnessing a true dinner party and were welcomed into it by the fact there was a space at the table so that we could look in and witness the growing chaos. I truly read this scene as comical but it was definitely humorously portrayed and this worked particularly well as the audience relaxed more over the constant interrupted conversations and became more warm and attached to the females.

However, perhaps because we are living in such a job focused age, the scene which was crucially interesting for me was when Marlene and her colleagues were interviewing other women in need of help from the ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency. The women who were part of the ‘Top Girls’ firm looked more assertive, confident and ‘ball-breaking’, compared to those who came in looking for professions and help with their careers. Whilst Marlene supported shoulder pads, high heels and a huge hair do, the ladies who came in had a more naïve, timid appearance and seemed far less ambitious. The message was clear; you could only truly survive if you were prepared to fight, struggle and step on any competitor to get the top. Friendly, loyal and conscientious didn’t make the cut anymore. There were always going to be younger, more ambitious women entering the work force to try and overtake you and of course, there was always going to be men. This constant worry of being overshadowed by men or younger women was emphasised when the interviewees were persuaded not to mention possible upcoming marriages or ideas concerning starting a family because these would hinder their chances of getting the job. Churchill’s satirical comment, based on her own experience within the 1980sm seems to have transcended across the generation.

In this play, the actresses were required to do many costume, accent and persona changes as their characters all doubled up. This was done extremely well which was evident when some actresses ensured their new personas were unrecognisable. Marlene was played by Carolina Catz. Sometimes Catz seemed to stumble over her lines, however, her Marlene was strong, confident and ambitious; one couldn’t help but admire her determination to succeed as she truly convinced herself and the audience it was the only way to live. Angie was performed by Victoria Gee and completely shattered my earlier belief that I would dislike her. Having read the play about a billion times for my A-level and having watched the Top Girls performance on DVD, I had never really liked Angie due to her cruel and ungrateful behaviour towards her mother and younger friend. However, Gee ensured she remained loyal to this character but you couldn’t help but sympathise with her as she fell asleep at the ‘Top Girls’ agency and dreamed of being more like her ‘aunt’.

The only slight criticism I would have is that I felt if you didn’t know the play you would risk becoming quite lost, particularly in the first scene when the characters are continually talking over one another. Of course, I do not feel this can truly be helped but is always something one would have to try their hardest to overcome when producing Top Girls. Furthermore, from my reading of the play, it is written with an extremely pro-Left voice which was not heard during the play. Instead, you are made to make up your own mind whether you agree with Marlene’s point of view or her sister’s. Personally, I am not a huge fan of plays which shove the writer’s political opinions down your throats and therefore enjoyed this version a lot more. However, I am sure many people would disagree with me and would have missed the strong Left voice which underlines the play and they, perhaps, may have felt that the show had shied away from making any form of political controversy.