TOP GIRLS
The Crescent Theatre, located in Brindleyplace, travels back to the 80’s this April as it plays host to Top Girls by Caryl Churchill.
The play is famous for its dreamlike opening sequence in which Marlene, a hard-bitten career women, celebrates her promotion as manager of Top Girls Recruitment Agency with a rather abstract dinner party where she 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.
This all female cast, directed by Leasa Clarke, focuses on the life of the 1980’s working woman, raising questions about class relations and the dual role of women at home and in the workplace. Leasa explains her interpretation, “I have decided to keep the play set in the 80’s as this was a pivotal point in history, where it was becoming more acceptable for women to take on powerful roles in the business world.
“We are also holding a 20-min workshop prior to the show, which will be offered to students who are studying the play. It will allow the students to analyse and ask questions about the set, and give them the opportunity to direct a short scene for themselves, before they see the scene as I directed it. People interested in the play can also keep up to date with the show by logging on to the character’s Blog pages http://topgirls-crescent.blogspot.com, giving them a full run down of the girls all the way from rehearsals to the start of the production.”
Top Girls is performed in the Ron Barber Studio Theatre (at The Crescent) and runs from Saturday 5th – Saturday 19th April (excludes 7th and 14th).
Tickets £10 (Concessions £9). To book tickets please call 0121 643 5858 or visit www.crescent-theatre.co.uk
+ Permalink