Top Girl

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Danielle is a tough grammar school Londoner, hanging around the streets with her mates, but not getting into too much bother, like most teenagers. Win meets Louise, a client who after conscientiously working for many years at the same firm is deciding to quit. She slowly opens up to Win, describing how she had dedicated her life to her job, working evenings at the expense of her social life, without reward. She has found herself at 46, with no husband or life outside of work, in a position where she trains men who are consistently promoted over her.

A turning point comes when Danielle is arrested and – with the help of a probation officer – she begins to question whether she really is ‘top girl’ after all. But after five years deep in the high-earning street hustle, can she really leave it all behind? Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It centres on Marlene, a career-driven woman who is heavily invested in women's success in business. The play examines the roles available to women in old society, and what it means or takes for a woman to succeed. It also dwells heavily on the cost of ambition and the influence of Thatcherite politics on feminism. In her interview with Win, Louise expresses frustration over the unfair sacrifices she has had to make and the double standards that she has endured to stay in good standing at her company for over 2 decades. The character of Louise represents hidden patriarchal structures that modern women still face in the workplace. Although Louise has the same human and spiritual rights as her male counterparts (unlike Joan or Nijo), she is highly aware that society views her as inferior to the men around her. Instead of accepting it, though, she is finally ready to do something about it, even though Win reminds her how difficult it will be for an older woman to get a new job. Louise is a contrast to Marlene - and shows that even though the feminist movement had made significant advances by the 1970s, gender equality was still a long way off.Well, this was certainly a rollercoaster of emotions. The story was gritty and harrowing. I had to remind myself at times that I wasn’t reading fiction. This was real.

After the break, Nell is interviewing Shona, who claims to be twenty-nine and working at her current sales job for four years. Nell, impressed, suggests that Shona might a good employee for the Top Girls employment agency. Nell then presses Shona a bit on her current job and personal life, collecting details to present to potential employers. Shona delivers a far-fetched story about driving a company Porsche and staying in hotels on the company’s expense account. Nell realizes that Shona is lying and calls the interview a "waste of time". Shona finally admits that she is only twenty-one and has no experience. It's a very dark read however, and I had to pause it several times when something terrible happened to Danielle. I'd be like "okay that's enough for now, I'll calm down and continue later".Prabhat wrote: "I fail to understand why girls of adolescent age in India read Twilight Saga which is full of horror and without any moral or ethics.In fact American writer like Stephanie has no idea about the c..." Hard-hitting, addictive, and thought-provoking, I 100% agree with the publishers when they said: "This book should be on the National Curriculum." It definitely needs to be studied by the younger generation, as Danielle's brutal honesty leaves nothing to the imagination. Despite the dark side to this tale, there is also a lighter side, where Danielle spreads the message that no matter what mistakes are made, there is always a way out, and there can be sunshine after the rain. In his review of the 1983 Royal Court production of the play, The Guardian critic Michael Billington stated that he was convinced that Top Girls "is the best British play ever from a woman dramatist. That is not meant to be patronising". [14] He later in 1997 included the play in his list of the "10 best British plays of the [20th] Century". [15] In 2015 Billington selected the play for his list of the "101 greatest plays" ever written in any western language. [4] In 2016, he also included Top Girls in his list of "Ten great Royal Court plays", where he described the play as the "supreme achievement" of Max Stafford-Clark's era as artistic director of The Royal Court. [16]

A production ran at the Watford Palace Theatre November 2–18, 2006 before transferring to the Greenwich Theatre November 21–25, 2006. The cast included Rachel Sanders, Zoe Aldrich, Elaine Claxton, Sara Houghton, Emma Pallant, Claire Redcliffe and Hayley Jayne Standing.Gritty, explosive and darkly emotional, this factual true crime memoir needs as much publicity as it can, to raise awareness of ‘gang’ life and drug crime and I’d happily recommend to any reader who isn’t easily upset or offended. The play opens in a restaurant, where Marlene is waiting for some friends to arrive. She is throwing a dinner party to celebrate her promotion at the employment agency where she works. As the women arrive and start the meal, they begin to talk about their lives and what they did. Each of her guests is a historical, fictional or mythical woman who faced adversity and suffered bitterly to attain her goals. Lady Nijo recalls how she came to meet the ex-Emperor of Japan, and her encounter with him. While the rest of the women understand the encounter as rape, she explains that she saw it as her destiny: the purpose for which she was brought up. Within the context of Pope Joan's narrative, the women discuss religion. At this point the waitress, who punctuates the scene with interruptions, has already brought the starter and is preparing to serve the main courses. All the women except Marlene discuss their dead lovers. They also recall the children that they bore and subsequently lost. Nijo's baby was of royal blood, so he couldn't be seen with her. Pope Joan was stoned to death when it was discovered that she had given birth and was therefore female and committing heresy. Griselda was told that her two children had been killed, in a cruel test of her loyalty to her husband. After dessert, the women sit drinking brandy, unconsciously imitating their male counterparts.