Top Girls

On Sale 07 November 2011

By Caryl Churchill

Set in Margaret Thatcher’s England in the early 1980s, where power dressing and giant shoulder pads were the all the fashion, Caryl Churchill’s stark and unflinching portrayal of the sacrifices women make to get to the top is still stingingly relevant.

Marlene is an ambitious career woman who has just been appointed head of the Top Girls Employment Agency. This aesthetically daring, politically provocative play tells the story of the firm and Marlene’s rise to power. An insightful commentary on bourgeois feminism, this bold and ingenious work offers one of theatre's most honest portraits of what it means to be a woman in the modern world.

Top Girls examines the complex challenges working women face in the contemporary business world and society at large. We celebrate Marlene’s success, yet as she climbs the corporate ladder and breaks through the glass ceiling, she leaves her sisters behind. In doing so, the play asks, can we applaud her values? The shoulder-pads may have gone on the rubbish heap, but Churchill’s masterpiece continues to resonate.



Director: Catherine Fitzgerald
Designer: Mary Moore
Cast includes: Eileen Darley, Antje Guenther, Ulli Birvé, Sally Hildyard,  Carissa Lee, Ksenja Logos, Lia Reutens
Composer: Catherine Oates

Access Performance:

Tuesday 28 Aug 6.30pm
Vision Impaired / Audio Described (with pre-show discussion from 5.30pm)

Saturday 1 Sep 2.00pm
Vision Impaired / Audio Described

Wednesday 5 Sep 11.00am
Captioned