Caryl Churchill, Top Girls

Bonnie Melchior (University of Central Arkansas)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1982

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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In an interview early in her career, Caryl Churchill stated that “playwrights don’t give answers, they ask questions,” and indeed her widely anthologized play

Top Girls

is neither didactic nor doctrinaire. It is sometimes called an example of “materialist feminism,” but varied critical responses testify to the fact that the play follows no “party line.” Critic Jane Thomas, for instance, says her plays are not “political stratagems for change in fields of class and gender,” but are rather “politically provocative critiques of society.”

The play opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 1982 soon after Churchill’s extremely successful Cloud Nine. It got mixed reviews and had enough success for the production to move to New York. There, it had sell-out audiences, received

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3330 words

Citation: Melchior, Bonnie. "Top Girls". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9738, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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