On the vast open spaces of Ian MacNeil’s set, some of the play’s subtleties also get lost. Amber Sallis, Linda Gillum, Aurora Real de Asua, Rebecca Spence and Karissa Murrell Myers in 'Top Girls' by. Review: TOP GIRLS at the National Theatre By Justin Murray Monday, April 8 2019, 10:21 - Reviews - Top Girls is widely regarded as Caryl Churchill’s finest play, and in Lyndsey Turner’s rich, maximalist production for the National’s Lyttleton Theatre, it is given perhaps its largest-scale platform ever. Expertly acted by a strong ensemble cast (in particular Liv. Review: In searing ‘Top Girls’ from Remy Bumppo, 1980s women strive to get ahead. When the same actor turns from the earthy Dull Gret of Brueghel’s painting into Marlene’s awkward supposed niece, Angie, a point is subliminally made about their similar quality of suppressed yearning. Ian MacNeils set design sweeps us from epic vast open spaces to scenes of intimacy and subtlety. What one misses, when all the other characters are individually cast, are the intriguing historical resonances. Rufus Norris: ‘The next four productions to open at the National. The dinner party guests’ lines (all taken from reviews or public statements) overlap and interrupt each other. He has unfortunately forgotten to invite any women. The unifying factor is the go-getting Marlene, whom we first see hosting a dinner-party for five legendary women, then running a thriving employment agency and finally confronting her working-class sister. Rufus Norris is hosting a dinner party to celebrate the opening of Lyndsey Turner’s production of Top Girls. It’s still a wonderful piece but at times it seems as if we’re watching three separate plays. Lyndsey Turner’s revival, however, boasts a cast of 18 and, as in her National production of Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire which put 62 actors on stage, I feel that added numbers don’t help. What started as an economic necessity in 1982 soon became a thing of custom: that seven actors play the multiple roles in Caryl Churchill’s richly complex study of bourgeois feminism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |