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Top Girls

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( 10,771 ratings, 583 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill is a compelling play exploring the complexities of women's roles in society. Set in the 1980s, it follows Marlene, a career-driven woman celebrating her promotion at a London employment agency. Through a blend of surreal and realistic scenes, the play examines themes of feminism, power, and the sacrifices made by women to succeed in a male-dominated world.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate thought-provoking plays that delve into themes of feminism, career ambition, and the complexities of female identity. The story's mix of historical and modern characters offers a captivating exploration of women's roles across different eras, making it an engaging read for those interested in culturally significant theatrical works.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
Marlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill’s play prompts us to question our notions of women's success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women's choices and restrictions regarding career and family. This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: Β· A chronology of the play and the playwright’s life and work Β· an introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created Β· a succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece Β· an analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text Β· a bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.

Series: Student Editions

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Top Girls is lauded for its blend of directness and complexity, with critics praising its emotional and intellectual engagement. John Peter highlights the play's ability to evoke life and intellectual debate, while Michael Billington considers it a landmark achievement in British theatre by a female playwright. Bryan Robertson commends Churchill's clever use of wit to underscore the play's serious themes.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781350028579

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 22 February 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Methuen Drama

Edition: 2nd edition

Contributors:

  • Edited by Sophie Bush

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 150g

Pages: 176

About the Author

Caryl Churchill is an award-winning playwright, whose plays are renowned for their striking influence upon contemporary British theatre practices. Indicative of her enduring impression upon the theatrical landscape, Churchill has won Obie Awards for her widely celebrated plays Cloud 9 (1979), Top Girls (1982), Serious Money (1987) and A Number (2002). Further cementing her reputation as an outstanding playwright, in 2002 Churchill won an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2010 was placed in the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She continues to produce innovative and provocative work, such as Seven Jewish Children - a play for Gaza (2009) and Love and Information (2012), and in January 2016 her latest full-length play, Escaped Alone, opened at the Royal Court Theatre to great acclaim. With an illustrious theatre career that transcends four decades, Caryl Churchill is arguably more than just one of Britain’s most revered female playwrights; she is one of Britain’s most respected and groundbreaking working today. Sophie Bush is the Course Leader for the BA Performance for Stage and Screen on which she teaches across a range of modules designed to develop performance practice, research and study skills. Broadly speaking, her research and teaching interests lie in the history, practice and politics of contemporary British theatre. To date, her focus has been on the careers of female playwrights from the late 1970s to the present day. Her publications include The Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013); My Mother Said I Never Should GCSE Student Edition (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016) and My Mother Said I Never Should GCSE Student Guide (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016).

Also by Caryl Churchill

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  • Top Girls
    Marlene hosts a dinner party 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 courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet...
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  • Churchill Plays: 1
    In Traps, a set of characters meet themselves and their pasts to create "plenty of sinewy lines and joyous juxtapositions" (Plays and Players). Vinegar Tom "is set in the world of seventeenth-century witchcraft, but it speaks, through its striking images and its plethora of ironic contradictions, of and to this century" (Tribune). Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is set during the...
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  • Churchill Plays: 2
    Churchill Plays: 2 includes four groundbreaking plays by Caryl Churchill, each offering a unique and compelling theatrical experience. Softcops transforms the philosophy of Foucault into a music-hall performance and Victorian freakshow. As noted by the Times Literary Supplement, "theatre and history combine to give such intelligent fun." Top Girls gathers five remarkable and not-so-remarkable women from history for a dinner...
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  • Churchill
    The plays in this volume represent the best of Churchill's writing up to and including her emergence onto the international theatre scene with Cloud Nine. The volume also contains a new introduction by the author as well as short prefaces to each play. When referencing the title, avoid putting it in quotes or speech marks.
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  • Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s
    With an introduction by Graham Whybrow, literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre, this anthology collects the defining plays of the 1980s and 1990s in one volume. Top Girls: 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' (The Guardian) Hysteria: 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' (The Sunday Times) Blasted:...
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