Top Girls

The production you are about to see comprises the culmination of an exploration in character study for ten young women in the final year of their Acting Specialization program. It-is also the graduating project of our MFA candidate, David Lucas, who has designed both set and costumes for Top Girls. Most importantly, it is a celebration of team effort in the true spirit of ensemble work; and, I think, in the spirit in which the playwright intended the piece to be presented. For what characterizes Caryl Chuchill’s writing generally is its highly collaborative and open nature; its great respect for actors and the acting process; and its challenge to directors and designers to embrace the vitality and richness inherent in her text.

With Top Girls, Churchill set out to write a play for women at a time (the early 1980’s) when women in the theatre were begging for roles. The play was, therefore, originally intended to have a cast of sixteen. However, as is generally the case with modern commercial theatre, finances dictated that the first production at the Royal Court be done with a cast of seven – all doubling roles. Thus a theatre tradition was born; and now it is almost unthinkable to do the show without doubling. So, in this production, each performer plays two roles – and since I have ten students, two share the role of Griselda, playing her on different evenings. We have also invented a singer for Olivia Palenstein, who plays Shona, so that she has two roles, too. And, we created another waitress for Brooke Weissler to balance her character Jeanine.

Through the course of rehearsal, we’ve explored many of the important issues which Top Girls raises; issues important to everyone, not just women. Some of them are about sacrifice and compromise; selfishness and determination; victory and pain. Perhaps the strongest focus on love and compassion.

Certainly it has become clear to us as the play reaches performance, that there are no easy routes to the top. As women take on the challenges that have traditionally fallen to men, they find that they face many of the same dilemmas. The questions then facing them are: who and what gets left behind? And what is wisdom?

One more note: in Top Girls, Churchill explores a technique she calls “cross talk”. Briefly, it refers to the fact that often in real life, and especially at parties or when people are excited, they start talking before someone else has finished or, in fact, at the same time, because they are eager to get out what they want to say. The result in performance is the creation of a cacophony of conversation, exacting work for both actors and audience alike but fascinating to listen to and watch. Some audiences and theatre critics have been incensed by it; others delighted. It is an experiment. She also uses some rather unpleasant four letter words in places that she thinks appropriate. I have not cut them because I think they are part of the texture of the work. Thank you for supporting us and the work we do here.

– Linda Hardy, Director

Top Girls