6 May 2019. Top Girls at the National Theatre

I was really absorbed by this complex play by Caryl Churchill. The first act in which Marlene (played by Katherine Kingsley) hosts a dinner with a diverse group of women from history was incredibly effective and gained a well-deserved round of applause at its conclusion. The playing and drawing out of the different characters was extremely well-done, especially the chatty Lady Nijo (played by Wendy Kweh) and Pope Joan (Amanda Lawrence). It transpires that many of these had a story about children - e.g., Lady Nijo and Patient Griselda had their children taken away from them while for Pope Joan the act of having a child had resulted in her being stoned to death once it was realised she was not a man.
We then switch to the second act with the child Angie playing with her young friend Kit and voicing her dislike of her mother. Next we move to the Top Girls office with Marlene and her colleagues working as recruitment consultants. Marlene has just heard she has won promotion, to the cost of a male manager. Suddenly office life is interrupted by the arrival of Angie who has come for an extended but unannounced stay with her Aunt - Marlene. The act concludes with Angie sleeping on the sofa and Marlene telling her co-workers that she is thick.
After the interval, we are a year earlier and Marlene is visiting her sister in East Anglia, having been invited by Angie without consulting her mother. Marlene brings presents for the child including a turquoise dress into which she had changed earlier in the play. Marlene, a Thatcherite, and her sister, a socialist, fall into argument during which it transpires that Angie is actually Marlene's daughter who had been adopted by her Aunt. The play ends with Angie coming downstairs, her sleep having been interrupted and declaring how she was scared.
As I said at the outset this is a complex play that would merit some studying and I'm sure that all its angles were not captured by me at the time. However, it was most certainly and interesting evening, cleverly directed by Lyndsey Turner and with sets at the top of the National's high standards.