Top Girls
By Caryl Churchill
Directed by Claire Fogal
Photos by Chara Berk
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Though many elements of Top Girls are tragic, I don’t find the play depressing, but actually wildly enlivening. I believe the characters are not just falling apart, but breaking open as they realize how they have internalized oppression, and begin to discover the roots of their own freedom and power. Deepak Chopra says, “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” With Top Girls I feel Caryl Churchill aims to give us the brutal birth pangs that could lead to a whole new level of human society.
Top Girls has been hailed as “the best British play ever from a woman dramatist.” (The Guardian, 1983) The play takes place in 1982 in Maggie Thatcher’s England, but my concern was that too much focus on ’80s British historical realism might actually distance us from the play’s contemporary relevance. Even in Canada, women still earn 83 cents to every dollar earned by men (and it took 20 years to increase eight cents), and in the U.S., “secretary” remains the number one job for women. North American women continue the battle to balance childcare and careers. My lawyer friend tells her clients that she has a “meeting” rather than reveal her need to pick up her son from preschool. As a culture we are still struggling to value caregivers, and still widening the gap between rich and poor, many of whom are mothers and their children. Caryl Churchill unflinchingly examines the hidden costs of capitalistic success and the dark side of sisterhood when individual power, rather than collective power, is the goal.
Our secret agenda with this production is to envelop you in the play, and to include you in the full experience of true human collaboration that live theatre always comes from. Churchill wrote that she intended for “that which is absent in the play, to have a presence.” Cooperation, equality, compassion and patience are all qualities missing from the characters’ lives; in our staging we’ve worked to reveal the extensive collaboration of our entire production team required to share Churchill’s moving story and revolutionary message. We are eager to hear if our experiment succeeds in making this play personally relevant to you, and would greatly appreciate your thoughts in our Comments Book in the lobby after the show.
Thank you for coming! -Claire Fogal
The Acting Ensemble
Griselda/Louise/Mrs. Kidd – Nadia Bordignon
Isabella/Nell – Paula Broderick
Pope Joan/Kit – Laura Genschorek
Nijo/Win – Angie Hennig
Gret/Angie – Fatuma Namatovu
Marlene – Meghan Somerville
Waitress/Joyce – Stephanie Webb
Creative Team
Director – Claire Fogal
Set Design – Drew Young
Costume Design – Trena Hollands
Lighting Design – Bryan Kenney
Assistant Director – Corina Akeson
Voice Coach – David MacMurray Smith
Stage Manager – Kyle Fee
Assistant SM – Amanda Billey
Sound Design – Thomas Challoner
Head of Projections – Douglas Beck
Props Design – Amanda Larder
Head of Carpentry – Jen Lucas & Matthew Konefal
Head of Lighting – Ashely Gould
Head of Props – Olivia Niese
Head of Costumes – Jillian Papp
Head Painter – Julie Braithwaite
Running Crew – Base Chiccarelli
Production Photos by Chara Berk Photography: charaberkphotography.com
