When she recounts her tale at dinner with the other women it appears in an accurate but slightly shortened form. Griselda says that she understands her husband's need for complete obedience, but it would have been nicer if he had not done what he did. She spends much of her time defending her husband's actions against Lady Nijo's accusations concerning his character. The protagonist of the play, Marlene is a high-ranking official at the Top Girls Employment Agency in London, and, at the start of the action, has just received an important promotion. To celebrate, she convenes… I thought God would speak to me directly. But of course he knew I was a woman." - Joan, Act 1, p. 14

This scared the s**t out of me, I’m not gonna lie. You hear “stabbing in London”, “shooting possibly gang related” on the news, never knowing why, but this gives you an insight into the murky world that normally we would know nothing about.

Even while earning big money doing her thing, she frittered it on designer accessories and hair extensions. I wonder that she didn’t think to save a big wedge to get herself a good lawyer and fight for her parental rights. She clearly loves her son. Very strange. I’m sure she has her reasons - I just don’t understand them. We live in a housing association estate, due to the influx of people from England, amongst other countries, the price of living has been pushed so high that many of us born in this town, cannot afford to buy a house here. We have , in effect, been ghettoised and isolated to areas which others-read middles class people and above-see as 'no go' places to visit. My children have been the 'token poor kids' for parents in the school yard, teachers who pay little to no attention to those who are living in an area of socio-economic deprivation, and you can see how easily you become angry at the stereotypes forced upon you because of your post code. You live there, you must be like this. Thankfully, me and my other half are fiercely protective of our girls and have no issues standing up for what they deserve. I have lost count of the times my children have sat outside the head master's office listening to me raging about the latest outrageous happening. And I would do it all over again! Groomed and manipulated from the age of 12, Danielle tells her story with startling candour and extremely graphic detail. She takes full responsibility for some of the things that she has done but when you read the unfathomable trauma that she has endured you cannot help but feel a deep level of empathy for her. Vivid, insightful and extremely powerful, I have thought about this book every day since reading it. A must-read for everyone.’ Marie Claire Act 2, Scene 3 is set in the Top Girls Employment Agency on a Monday morning. Win and Nell have just arrived to begin work. They are drinking coffee and chatting about the men they dated or had affairs with over the weekend. Marlene arrives and Nell and Win applaud and whistle for her after being promoted over Howard, but Nell also indicates that she envies Marlene's success.

In Act One, Scene Two, Marlene is at the agency where she works, interviewing a girl named Jeanine. Marlene takes a fancy to her even though she seems lost and helpless. She doesn't know what type of job she wants—only that she wants to travel and be with her husband. In 2019 a production was staged at the Royal National Theatre in London, starring Katherine Kingsley, Amanda Lawrence and Siobhan Redmond, and directed by Lyndsey Turner. [6] In 2021, a Portuguese version of the play was directed by Cristina Carvalhal and presented in Queen Maria II National Theatre, in Lisbon. [ citation needed]After the break, Nell is interviewing Shona, who claims to be twenty-nine and working at her current sales job for four years. Nell, impressed, suggests that Shona might a good employee for the Top Girls employment agency. Nell then presses Shona a bit on her current job and personal life, collecting details to present to potential employers. Shona delivers a far-fetched story about driving a company Porsche and staying in hotels on the company’s expense account. Nell realizes that Shona is lying and calls the interview a "waste of time". Shona finally admits that she is only twenty-one and has no experience. Its raw and honest. It isn't a glamorous or a pretty story but I really liked 'D' and the honesty with which she told her story. I liked that she took responsibility for her own actions and didn't try to play the pity card and even though in a lot of ways she was a victim she didn't play the victim either.

The play opens in a restaurant, where Marlene is waiting for some friends to arrive. She is throwing a dinner party to celebrate her promotion at the employment agency where she works. As the women arrive and start the meal, they begin to talk about their lives and what they did. Each of her guests is a historical, fictional or mythical woman who faced adversity and suffered bitterly to attain her goals. Lady Nijo recalls how she came to meet the ex-Emperor of Japan, and her encounter with him. While the rest of the women understand the encounter as rape, she explains that she saw it as her destiny: the purpose for which she was brought up. Within the context of Pope Joan's narrative, the women discuss religion. At this point the waitress, who punctuates the scene with interruptions, has already brought the starter and is preparing to serve the main courses. All the women except Marlene discuss their dead lovers. They also recall the children that they bore and subsequently lost. Nijo's baby was of royal blood, so he couldn't be seen with her. Pope Joan was stoned to death when it was discovered that she had given birth and was therefore female and committing heresy. Griselda was told that her two children had been killed, in a cruel test of her loyalty to her husband. After dessert, the women sit drinking brandy, unconsciously imitating their male counterparts. Mrs. Kidd is the wife of Howard Kidd, a man who works at the Top Girls Employment Agency. Mrs. Kidd comes to visit Marlene to beg for Marlene to refuse the promotion she’s… In 2002, The Guardian published an article written by the critic Lyn Gardner about the enduring relevance of Top Girls as the play was being revived in the West End 20 years after its initial premiere. In the article Gardner stated that Top Girls "can still lay claim to being one of the finest postwar British plays. With its postmodern approach to structure, chronology and, most obviously, language, including dialogue that interrupts and overlaps, it is certainly one of the most influential." She also wrote that the play's opening dinner party scene is "one of the most famous scenes in modern drama". [20] The play is famous for its dreamlike opening sequence in which Marlene meets famous women from history, including Pope Joan, who, disguised as a man, is said to have been pope between 854 and 856; the explorer Isabella Bird; Dull Gret the harrower of Hell; Lady Nijo, the Japanese mistress of an emperor and later a Buddhist nun; and Patient Griselda, the patient wife from The Clerk's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. [8] All of these characters behave like a gang of city career women out on the town and get increasingly drunk and maudlin, as it is revealed that each has suffered in similar ways. Not everyone has someone in their corner, and you listen to your teen daughters telling you about their deeply hurting school mates, their mental health issues, the struggles that they are having, we are clearly letting our kids down. And when we do, there are people lurking, waiting to take advantage of this. They aren't always the people you are warned about, the ones in cars who want you to see their puppies or offering you a ride home 'because your mother sent me'.

Top Girls was nominated for 'Best Play' at the 1982 Standard Drama Awards, although it was noted that the play "drew compliments rather than committed votes" from the judging panel. [13] Groomed by a gang member from the young age of twelve, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how a young girl could be manipulated and get caught up in the gang life. I really liked the fact that Danielle doesn’t paint herself as a victim. She takes ownership of the path she chose. Danielle is very honest and admits that money was her motivation for drug selling, but she highlights the actual dangers associated with selling drugs, and gives a brutal insight into how and why kids get involved in drugs and drug dealing.

Kit is a twelve-year-old girl who is a friend and neighbor of Angie’s. Though Kit is young, she is cruel and aggressive, and spars verbally and physically with Angie. Kit seems to feel coerced… This is a harrowing story of how failure by the school, the police and social services drives people further into the abusive dangerous lives they have become involved with. It shows how protection and safety seem more guaranteed with a gang than with the organisations that are supposed to help you. In the end Danielle is helped to leave but even then it only works because she has the intelligence to see that the agencies task to help her are only going to do a half arsed job and she must rely on the skills she has to get herself all the way there.Danielle is currently in witness protection since she has turned her life around with the help and support of probation services. She graduated from university with a first class honours degree and is currently studying for her Masters degree. She now advocates for women in the criminal justice system and speaks with law enforcement agencies about the role of women in gangs. Meet Danielle. A London schoolgirl with her life ahead of her. One chance meeting changes her life forever. Joan says this while explaining that as she rose through the Church hierarchy, she always believed that God, knowing she was a woman, approved of her ascent. However, when she became Pope and failed to establish a direct connection with God, Joan took this to indicate his disapproval. Joan’s statement is deeply ironic, since to a modern audience the idea of speaking directly with God, even by the Pope, seems ridiculous. However, this statement also indicates the intensity of the gender divide during Joan's time. While women like Mrs. Kidd may look down upon Marlene's promotion over a man, in Joan's time, the patriarchy was so deeply seated that people believed only men could communicate with the Almighty. Joan sacrificed her life in her rebellion against the patriarchy - so at least Marlene is living in a slightly more civil time.