Through September 26, 2009
Reviewed by Andrea Braun
Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble never shies away from a challenge. Following the brutal
honesty and unrelenting pain of the brilliant 4.48 Psychosis , to an all-female Macbeth performed in a stark outdoor
setting, the company now brings us Top Girls . Caryl Churchill’s
post-modern meditation on gender and conservative national politics in 1982’s
Great Britain doesn’t seem as dated as it should, more’s the pity.
SATE demands much from its actors and its audiences. The acting is never in
question. This is a talented group who train together, work and play together,
and have created a tightly knit ensemble of theatre artists who have developed
an instinctual knowledge of each other and their craft. SATE doesn’t pander to
the audience by putting on crowd pleasers. The sense is that they choose
material that will stretch them, and through their performances, stretch the
audience, as well. Top Girls requires that close attention be paid to make
sense of the twists and turns in time that underpin the story of career woman
Marlene (Rachel Tibbbetts) and how she got where she is, along with who had to
be thrown under the bus in service of her success.
Churchill’s
play is an intellectual exercise that is enjoyable and challenging, up to a
point. Unfortunately that point is passed around the two-hour mark, and there’s
nearly another hour to go. In the final scene, Marlene is visiting her sister,
Joyce (Johanna Elkana-Hale) whose weariness is palpable. It’s a terrific piece
of acting that I both felt deeply and couldn’t really care much about because,
by then, I was just anxious for it to be over. And yet, this scene is pivotal
to understanding all the action that has preceded it.
The
best-known part of the play is the opening in which Marlene celebrates her
promotion to Managing Director of the Top Girls Employment Agency where she has
made a success at 32. She has worked her way to the, well, “top” and in her
mind, she has done it alone. She arrives at a restaurant in a striking red
dress to celebrate with friends who, as they arrive one by one, are clearly not
Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha.
First
to appear is Isabella Bird (Dianna Thomas), a world traveler, author and
determinedly independent woman who, by the time of the play, has been dead 78
years. But it gets far stranger than that. Lady Nijo (Erin Roberts), a
Japanese concubine turned Buddhist nun from the 13th century comes
to the party, as does the likely mythical Pope Joan who was rumored to be the
only female pope in history. She lived in the 9th century and had dressed
as a boy from the age of 12 in order to continue to study, a kind of Catholic
Yentl.
The
group is completed by “Dull Gret,” (Emily Piro, the director, standing in for
the ailing Lindsey Day Henry) the subject of Breughel’s painting, “The
Harrowing of Hell,” and “Patient Griselda,” (Hale) a character who provides an
object lesson in obedience as the tale is carried through literary history from
Plutarch to Boccaccio to Chaucer (“The Clerk’s Tale”). The women talk around
and over each other, but there are enough “solos” that we can follow their
trajectories. There is also a silent waitress (Margeau Baue Steinau) who moves
about serving the women, a witness to their stories.
These
women represent Marlene’s foremothers, though the party is treated as if they
are her contemporaries. The Pope gets drunk and starts babbling in Latin. Gret
is mostly quiet but seems afflicted by Tourette’s Syndrome as she occasionally
mutters nonsensical scatological words. She also hoards food, but she does have
her “moment” late in the scene. Isabella chatters along, oblivious to everyone
else for the most part, narrating her own exploits. Lady Nijo is self-effacing
but doesn’t hold back talking about her own life. Finally, Griselda who arrives
late, tells her own story which the others, however much they’ve suffered
(nearly all having to do with their children except for Isabella who didn’t
have any) find particularly horrifying.
After
this bizarre beginning, we see Marlene at work. She is efficient and seems a
bit ruthless as she interviews a client named Jeanine (Steinau who plays all
three women using Top Girls’ services) who doesn’t exactly know what she wants
but thinks she knows what she doesn’t, until Marlene virtually hypnotizes her
into interviewing for two jobs she has rejected at first.
Two
girls appear and shift the set around to create a hideout in the yard where
they can play and talk. Angie (Thomas) is 15 and Kit (Roberts) is four years
younger, but Angie is rather slow, so they seem about the same age. Angie has
quit school and dreams of joining her glamorous “Aunt Marlene” in London. She
even tells Kit she suspects Marlene is her “real” mother. By the end, she is
holding a brick and threatening to kill her mother Joyce.
And
it’s back to London where we meet Marlene’s co-workers, Win (Piro) and Nell (Coleman)
who are gossping and arranging their day. Marlene arrives and she is clearly
the Alpha female here. The assumption is that she will be promoted over Howard
Kidd to the directorship, even though Howard is a man with three children to
support, a point his wife (Steinau) makes when she visits the office to plead
with Marlene to step aside. Well, that’s not going to happen.
The
final scene takes place a year before the first when Marlene visits her sister
in the blue collar village where they grew up. She hasn’t been home for six
years, but Angie called and said her mother wanted to see Marlene. Joyce
doesn’t know anything about this, and in fact, she quite doesn’t want to see
Marlene, and family secrets are revealed in a vitriolic argument purportedly about
national and gender politics in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. Marlene believes
that if people are “too lazy, stupid and frightened” to make their way, they
don’t deserve help. She reveals her own self-loathing, buried deep but it’s there,
when she pronounces, “I hate the working class.” The system has worked for
Marlene, but it has failed Joyce, and what Marlene also cannot see is that,
just as in the old saw about a woman behind every successful man, Joyce has been
that woman for her.
Emily
Piro has done a fine job directing this demanding show, incorporating SATE’s
techniques of movement and relationship to one’s environment. The characters
interact with the spaces and invade each other’s personal comfort zones, which
discomfits the audience, as well. She has chosen to give an already-edgy play an
even sharper reading. She also does good work playing a part she didn’t expect
to have to do until a few days ago. There’s some awkwardness in her exchanges
with Roberts, but overall, she’s fine.
Steinau
deserves special mention for her ability to delineate her characters and find
ways to distinguish them from each other. After Jeanine, she plays Louise, an
uptight middle aged woman who has worked for one company 46 years. She is now
tired of men being promoted over her, after she has completely sacrificed any
kind of personal life for her work. This is the direction Marlene is headed. I’m
not sure what the accent is here (Pamela Reckamp is credited as dialect coach,
and some of these dialects are of mysterious origins and unsteady consistency).
Steinau’s best character, I think, is Shona who insists she’s 29 and makes up
an impressive resume for her interview, but is quickly revealed to be underage
and is tossed from the office, her “slightly askew” ponytail bouncing along.
The
color orange is applied liberally—in props, signage, some furniture and
clothing. Orange is an energetic yet polarizing hue—not red, not yellow,
but some of both. I suppose it might also have something to do with the orange
itself—a fruit that is offered Marlene by her sister—because of its
layers and the pith that protects the delicate fruit inside.
Good
use is made of a tough space. Seats are placed at the far end of the
rectangular room and props are moved with ease. Also, during scene changes,
people sing, dance about, and in general keep our attention away from the
distraction of the shifts. Michael B. Perkins receives credit for the design,
Erin Roberts is in charge of the costumes (which had to be fun) and they add a
lot to the production. Mark Pannebecker’s lights set the mood and Noah Thomas’
sound design is worthy of note, as well.
Top
Girls
is a demanding play, but I admire SATE for taking it on. They do need an
audience, however, so if you’re in the mood for some intellectual stimulation
instead of staying home and watching Simpsons reruns for the umpteenth time,
check it out. Serious theatergoers only need apply.
Top
Girls
is at Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble’s space at the Chapel on Alexander Drive
through Sept. 26, 2009. Call 314-835-7415 or visit www.slightlyoff.org.
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