I will always be biased when it comes to Top Girls cos it was one of my primary texts for my M. Phil desertation. But regardless of that, it's a wonderful play by Churchill. From First wave feminism to postfeminist, from right wing feminism to left wing feminism, from the 'them' and 'us' feminist standpoints to Thatcherite feminism that some claim gave birth to the postfeminist ideology....the play covers it all. Interestingly, I could also trace some similarities between the play and a typical chick lit novel like Bridget Jones(something I was rather proud of) :DThe best part however, is that Churchill does not favour any one ideology and let's the reader be the judge. I love it!!

I read this play for my college Feminism class and I thought it was very interesting how it focuses on what it means to be a successful woman. Act I of the play was intriguing and examines the social achievement of women through the legendary and historical female characters who attend Marlene's luncheon. Each of the guests represented different ideals of women having social liberties and power. Pope Joan reflects Marlene's own life style when I first read it. Both Marlene and Joan were clever from a very young age, determined to continue to engage in their studies. They also left their homes to fulfill their goals. Also they both had to mask their sexuality in order to rise to the high positions they strove to achieve and compete in male-dominated worlds. Another historical figure in the play who identified with Marlene and represents the theme was Isabella Bird. Both ladies were not content to simply settle down but wanted to travel the world and have that freedom to do so. Marlene and Bird "need adventures more" while they both needed men in their lives, neither of them allowed for them to wait for them "to turn into the little woman" men could abuse and control, such as Marlene's mother. Marlene and Bird both detested marriage. Marlene does not favor it due to the cruel mistreatment of her mother by her father's hands and Bird "tried very hard to cope with the ordinary drudgery of life." She started to feel for her husband John initially, bu he became "a skeleton with transparent white hands" that she was looking after. Isabella Bird's character in the play represents that part of being a successful woman- one should not be bound to a husband, trouble with having or raising children, yet instead carve out their own paths in life. The play also addresses the Marxist Feminist issue of women and Humanism. Nijo, another of the historical characters explained how when she was in favor in the court of the Emperor, she bore other children to him yet saw her daughter only once before she was killed because the child was female, which raises the issue of legal rights for women. Joan afterward explained how the Vatican issued an embarrassing test of examining the testicles to ensure popes following her were male. The rest of the guests laughed at how ridiculous the test sounded and it is an example of the issue of how women are ragarded in positions of power and were barred from holding seats reserved only for men. Patient Griselda's story also deals with this particular Feminist issue. When she was plucked from poverty to be the Marquis wife, she had to swear to follow his orders. Her obediance oath cost her the 3 children she bore, all taken away from her. When told to return home by her husband, she obeys. All the pain Griselda endured was to test her loyalty to her husband. While she understood why her husband tested her trust, she believed she could have been spared years of suffering if her children were not taken away from her. This was the first play of Churchill's that I have ever read and I enjoyed it and the subjects and issues it argues on about females striving to make their own way in the world and not be kept under a man's thumb.

Caryl Churchill is a master of taking what would in lesser hands be an experiment in collage and creating something emotionally charged and politically.While on the one hand the characters in Top Girls are passionate and examples of strength, they are also figures of regret and uncertainly.Luckily Churchill doesn't take a strong-side and make this a message play (claiming that working women are empty without a family, or that housewives are without identity other without their families), but instead seems to say that the act of choosing one's life is tricky in itself, always seeing the other paths running parallel to our own. I can see how some might feel this is a cop-out, but still: I found the play moving.While still a topic in debate, the play does date itself slightly in that, when it was written, the subject was bit newer and probably had more teeth. How many debates, rallies, movies, novels, plays, etc. have dealt with this topic? Churchill seems to address this question directly with the first Act, in which historical and fictitious women of the past gather for dinner and we are told flat out that this is a subject that dates back over a millennium ago (and no, this scene is not just intellectual masturbation, it actually works!)