Top Girls (Methuen Student Editions) - Softcover

Churchill, Caryl

3.58

9,609 ratings by Goodreads

9780413644701: Top Girls (Methuen Student Editions)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413644707 ISBN 13: 9780413644701

Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 1991

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Marlene hosts a dinner part in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904), the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258), the mediaeval Japanese courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan, the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, and obedient wife out of Chaucer. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the more pressing dilemmas of Marlene herself. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a benchmark for ushering a new generation of playwrights after it was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982. "Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind." (John Peter, Sunday Times) This volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations, notes on individual words and phrases and photographs from stage productions.

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Review:

""Top Girls" has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind."--"The Sunday Times""A dramatist who must surely be rated among the half-dozen best now writing a playwright of genuine audacity and assurance, able to use her considerable wit and intelligence in ways at once unusual, resonant and dramatically riveting."--"New Statesman""One of our best writers her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme."--"Spectator"

About the Author:

Caryl Churchill has written for the stage, television and radio. Her acclaimed body of work includes Three More Sleepless Nights (1980); Top Girls (1982); Fen (1983); Mouthful of Birds (1986); Serious Money (1989); The Skriker (1984); Blue/Heart (1998) and Far Away in Autumn (2000).

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