By Michele Markarian
Top Girls – Written by Caryl Churchill. Directed by Liesl Tommy. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company, Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre through May 20.
“Top Girls” is a challenging piece of theater. Clocking in at just under three hours, the play takes place in the life of one central character, Marlene (Carmen Zilles). To celebrate her promotion to top brass in the executive search firm she works for, Marlene throws a dinner party, inviting five disparate historical women. Isabella Bird (a radiant Paula Plum) is a 19th century female explorer. Vanessa Kai’s moving and dramatic Lady Nijo comes from 13th century Japan where she was a concubine to the Emperor before becoming a Buddhist nun. Dell Gret (the adept Carmen M. Herhily) is a folkloric, primitive warrior woman from a 16th century painting. Pope Joan (a superb Sophia Ramos) was a woman who pretended to be man during the 9th century and allegedly rose to the rank of Pope. Last is Patient Griselda (Ella Monte-Brown) another folkloric figure whose faithfulness to a nobleman was sorely tested during the 14th century.
Marlene doesn’t say much during her dinner – her guests are too busy talking about themselves, overlapping one another, not really listening. It’s as if they are allowed to tell their stories for the first time, and their stories are sad indeed. With the exception of Isabella Bird (“I cannot and will not live the life of a lady”) all of them have sacrificed children, and the sacrifices have made them rent. They reveal bits and pieces of themselves to one another, each with a faculty for superficiality to retreat back into.
It’s an interesting first act, with wonderful acting and Sophia Ramos’s gorgeous singing but just as you’re getting used to this party, Act II catapults us into the present. A backyard in the backwoods of England, a glitzy, high-flying office of an executive search firm, and the backwoods home in England – where we learn Marlene is originally from – set the next three scenes. Marlene, it turns out, has sacrificed something herself, in order to be a “top girl”. Despite some truly remarkable acting, particularly from the multi-faceted Carmen M. Herhily (Angie), Kiara Pichardo (Kit/Shona) and Sophia Ramos (Joyce), the second half of the piece, though thematically connected, didn’t work against the first. Honestly, my overwhelming feeling at the end of Act II, and I’m not sure if it was the playwright’s intention, was to slap Marlene on the back and whisper, “Well done, you. Now run like hell and forget you ever saw these people!” But the onstage Marlene is upset; are we supposed to believe that her submerged “feminine” side is suffering, as her burgeoning career is ruled by her own so-called masculine behavior? Whatever the reason for her success, in the end, it looks like she dodged a very big bullet. But she obviously has guilt, which I hope will fade on the first train back to the city.
Director Tommy keeps the pace brisk against Rachel Hauck’s wonderful and layered set design (keep an eye out on the large portrait during Act II). Linda Cho’s detailed costumes epitomize each time period beautifully. But the most haunting – and for me, emotionally resonant part of the show – is the first act, when the historical women, isolated within their own tragedies, are given a voice and a chance to connect. Joyce and Angie are isolated and alone as well, but I missed the point – or chose not to see it – with regards to Marlene’s misery and coming home. Perhaps I have the makings of a top girl, too. For more information and tickets, go to:https://www.huntingtontheatre.org
