Top Girls Play Analysis

Each time a play is recreated by a direction, it becomes a totally new production than the last time it was performed. There is no exception of this fact for Ramapo College’s fall production of Caryl Churchill’s feminist play, Top Girls. The scenery, lighting, and costumes all play an important role in helping to bring the director’s vision to life. David Gordon’s vision was very specific in that he wanted an all women production and for each character to have many layers, both literally and figuratively. Through very pointed and specific scenery, lighting, and costumes, David Gordon was able to bring his vision to life. The setting and scenery of a play are very important. They can convey the situation and what kind of relationships or conflicts

Each historical figure in the first scene was connected to another ‘top girl’ later on in the play. There was an attempt to make this evident by having the actresses change into the costumes of their corresponding characters on stage. However, the director’s added musical number just did not make sense and just added more confusion to the whole situation than it did to explain the connections between the characters, as most of them just stripped on stage rather than completely get redressed. Despite this, once the actresses were actually dressed, the connections between the modern characters and the historical ones were very clear. Win wears Lady Nijo’s kimono jacket to work and Louise wears Pope Joan’s cloak to Top Girls agency for her interview. Angie and Kit both change completely on stage from Dull Gret and the waitress obvious. There were many layers to each character, both physically and emotionally. In the first scene, all of the historical characters are wearing time-period undergarments and later on this trend continues when Marlene removes her business suit and reveals a silk slip. Emotionally, it is also very easy to relate Angie and Dull Gret as they are both violent and slow. The costumes are key in helping to bring to life David Gordon’s vision of all the layers within the