My pet bête noire, having studied Chaucer's The Clerk's Tale at the impressionable age of sixteen, is the feminist anti-heroine, the "Patient Griselda", who has the most dire of indignities and humiliation heaped upon her by her husband Walter, all in the cause of feminine subjugation. Pope Joan, scholarly and occasionally lapsing into Latin, is most amusing in her matter of fact account of her studies in Rome and her clerical career. She also took a lover, fell pregnant, gave birth in the street, and was stoned to death. Helen Anderson gives a portrayal of a Japanese courtesan, Lady Nijo, a thirteenth century imperial mistress who prattles incessantly about life as a concubine and the social inferiority of giving birth to daughters as opposed to sons.Ĭlad in red papal velvet, a rotund Joanna Scanlan plays the legendary Pope Joan, a woman reputed to have slipped through the Catholic Church's sex code and, having passed herself off as a man, was elected to the Papacy. Her contribution is some travellers' tales and conversation about her own marriage as well as to remind us that given determination, Victorian women could break away from their traditional role. The first guest is Isabella Bird Bishop (Elizabeth Berrington), a nineteenth century Scotswoman who overcame illness to travel and explore between the ages of 40 and 70 and who was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Geographic Society. She reveals little about herself except to introduce her guests and order the Frascati. Marlene has five guests at her dinner party at a revolving round table. The final act contrasts and confronts Hattie and her sister, Joyce (Helen Anderson), their lifestyle, values and aspirations. The middle act puts Hattie in the context of her business and shows two adolescent girls who live in Hattie's home county of rural Suffolk. The play moves from a dinner party thrown by Hattie with guests interestingly drawn from "representative women" from throughout history, giving a general perspective on the role of women. Only one character, Marlene (Hattie Ladbury) appears in all three acts. In the 1980s, the three interrelated but distinct acts would have been innovative. (from the left clockwise) Elizabeth Berrington as Isabella Bird, Sophie Shaw as Patient Griselda,Īnderson as Lady Nijo, Pascale Burgess as Dull Gret, Joanna Scanlan as Pope Joan and Hattie Ladbury as MarleneĬaryl Churchill's play Top Girls won a place in the National Theatre's Millennium list of the hundred best plays of the twentieth century.
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