Top Girls

Consider the structure of the play. How would you describe it? What effect does this structure have on the way the audience experiences the narrative?

What do you think the play is saying about feminism and capitalism? Is Marlene a feminist? Why or why not? How does capitalism work with or against feminism?

Caryl Churchill wrote Top Girls in 1982, during a time when conversations about LGBTQ+ people were not happening in the mainstream. The idea of womanhood is very much connected to the body in the play, and the only sexuality mentioned is straight. How would you revise the play to include transgender women? Lesbians? Choose three revisions you would make, and explain why.

Research Thatcherism and the history of Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister, particularly before 1982 when the play is set, and how her policies interact with the ideas that Churchill put forth. What is Churchill saying to those who subscribe to Thatcherism?

What does success mean in the play? How does the play demonstrate the way success works? Choose three characters, and explain why you think they are successful or unsuccessful within the world of the play.

What is the significance of Angie’s dress? What is the significance in the fact that it is too small in Act II but fits in Act III, and why does she want to wear it to kill Joyce? How does the dress connect to the way the rest of the women in the play talk about clothing?

How would you characterize Angie’s relationship with Kit? How do they define it, and how do other characters define it? How does their relationship compare to the rest of the relationships in the play?

What do you think is the purpose of Churchill’s choice to include only female characters in the play, when there are several offstage men who are mentioned? Choose three of these offstage characters and explain how they function in terms of the action onstage.