Max Stafford-Clark’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, which is currently playing at Chichester’s Minerva theatre, is to transfer to London’s Trafalgar Studios 1 from 5 August to 15 October (press night 16 August).
The cast is led by Suranne Jones as Marlene, the hard-nosed businesswoman who is hosting a dinner party to celebrate her promotion to MD of the Top Girls Employment Agency. Her guests – all powerful woman from myth and history – make for an extraordinary gathering.
Jones was most recently seen on television in detective series Scott & Bailey and alongside David Tennant in Single Father. The former Coronation Street star was previously seen in the West End in A Few Good Men in 2005.
She is joined in Top Girls by Stella Gonet, Catherine McCormack, Lucy Briers, Laura Elphinstone, Lisa Kerr and Olivia Poulet. Gonet has combined television appearances in The House Of Eliott and Holby City with stage work for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company; McCormack’s career has included The 39 Steps in the West End, All My Sons at the National Theatre and films Braveheart and 28 Weeks Later; Briers appeared alongside Gonet in The Voysey Inheritance at the National Theatre and in Ivanov for the Donmar West End season; Elphinstone has been seen in Tom And Viv at the Almeida theatre and several productions for the Royal Court.
This is Stafford-Clark’s second production of Top Girls, having directed the premiere production in 1982 at the Royal Court, where he was then Artistic Director.
Top Girls, written and set during the Thatcher era, is one of Churchill’s best known plays.
Her other work includes Cloud Nine, Far Away, A Number – recently revived at the Menier Chocolate Factory – and Drunk Enough To Say I Love You?
Top Girls plays in Chichester until 16 July before transferring to London.
CB