Marlene, the tough career woman, is portrayed as soulless, exploiting other women and suppressing her own caring side in the cause of success.
There is also commentary on Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, who celebrated personal achievement and believed in free-market capitalism ( Thatcherism). 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. The play is set in the Britain of the early 1980s and examines the issue of what it means to be a successful woman, initially using "historical" characters to explore different aspects of women's "social achievement". In this play Churchill also developed stylistic technique of overlapping dialogues and non-linear storyline. The play has an all-female cast playing complex characters, which has been hailed by critics as the most significant feminist intervention in the patriarchal drama mode.
Top Girls was written in the background of Margaret Thatcher's election as Britain's first female prime minister and deals with concerns such as Thatcher's right-wing politics, a shift in 1980s Britain from a socialist mindset to a more capitalist one, and the feminine politics of the 1980s.
In 2021, a Portuguese version of the play was directed by Cristina Carvalhal and presented in Queen Maria II National Theatre, in Lisbon. In 2019 a production was staged at the Royal National Theatre in London, starring Katherine Kingsley, Amanda Lawrence and Siobhan Redmond, and directed by Lyndsey Turner. This production toured in the UK in early 2012, with a new cast including Caroline Catz as Marlene. The cast included Suranne Jones, Stella Gonet, Olivia Poulet, Lucy Briers, Laura Elphinstone, Lisa Kerr and Catherine McCormack. The MTC production marked the Broadway premiere of Top Girls, though the original Royal Court production had visited New York's Public Theater.Ī 2011 revival at Chichester Festival Theatre, co-produced with Out of Joint and directed by the play's original director Max Stafford-Clark transferred to Trafalgar Studios in the West End, opening on 16 August 2011. The production was directed by frequent Churchill collaborator James Macdonald.
The cast included Rachel Sanders, Zoe Aldrich, Elaine Claxton, Sara Houghton, Emma Pallant, Claire Redcliffe and Hayley Jayne Standing.ĭuring 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. Ī production ran at the Watford Palace Theatre November 2–18, 2006 before transferring to the Greenwich Theatre November 21–25, 2006. The cast was Selina Cadell, Lindsay Duncan, Deborah Findlay, Carole Hayman, Lesley Manville, Gwen Taylor and Lou Wakefield. It was directed by Max Stafford-Clark, the Royal Court's artistic director, who premiered several of Churchill's plays. The play was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London on 28 August 1982.