Towards a Feminist Theatre

“Women are all female impersonators to some degree.” — Susan

Brownmiller, Femininity 1984

In 1982, Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls opened at The Royal

Court Theatre in London, making a splash with its remarkably

unconventional first act. In order to depict the universal

struggle of women living in a male dominated world, Churchill

brings together five representative women—some, like Pope

Joan, who were real historical figures and others, like

Patient Griselda, who was borrowed from Chaucer’s “Clerk’s

Tale”—to share, over dinner and wine, their stories of

suffering and triumph. With this play, and others like it,

Churchill became the unquestioned mother of feminist theatre,

whose torch-bearers now include the likes of Paula Vogel, Tina

Howe, and, of late, Lisa Loomer.

Yet, what exactly is a feminist theatre?

Born out of an intersection between the experimental theatre

movement of the 1960s and the feminist movement of the 1970s,

feminist theatre is as much a political endeavor as a

theatrical one. Like the postmodern, with which it is closely

associated—some might even say it is but one branch on the

postmodern tree—feminist theatre argues that for over two

millennia, since even before Aristotle scribbled out his Poetics,

Western theatre has been dominated by a white, male ideology.

With its focus on a single protagonist, its belief that

identity and gender (and thus character) are fixed and

singular, and its dearth of substantive female roles, the

Western theatre has perpetuated a masculine perspective of the

world at the expense of the feminine. In response, feminist

theatre evolved not only to share the tragically under-

represented experiences of women living in a patriarchal

society, but also to create a theatricality that would subvert

Western theatre’s most “sacred” traditions.

Churchill’s Top Girl’s, as an example, undermines the Aristotelian

aesthetic—in which a single protagonist follows a linear plot—

by focusing on an ensemble during its opening dinner scene,

thus dramatizing the feminist belief that the group is more

important than the individual. The drama here is not born out

of conflict, but rather out of the juxtaposition of the

characters and the stories they share. It is the collision of

Patient Griselda, for instance, whose husband continually

tests her loyalty by taking away her children, with that of

Pope Joan, who disguised herself as a man and served as Pope

between 854 and 856, that produces meaning in the play.

Also embedded in the structure of many feminist plays is the

argument that identity and gender are not fixed or innate, but

rather dynamic and culturally created. Signaling this are

gestures like “doubling”, in which an actor plays multiple

parts in order to underscore the many potential identities

inside a person, or cross-dressing, in which the incongruity

of dressing up in “drag” highlights the “cultural performance”

of gender.

These devices, along with a preference for non-linear plots

and open-ended conclusions as opposed to climaxes, are just

some of the elements that comprise the feminist theatre. In

this respect, Lisa Loomer’s The Waiting Room—, which she

acknowledges was heavily influenced by Top Girls—is more than

just a critique of the medical profession’s treatment of

women’s health issues. It is also part of a growing body of

plays—such as Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive and Suzan-Lori

Parks’ Venus: a Play–-that are attempting to carve out a feminist

perspective in the previously male dominated world of theatre.

Dan Tarker Literary Associate

http://www.hartnell.edu/westernstage/press_releases/

2004/2005%20Info/WaitingRoomSup.htm (Accessed 22/10/09)

"Playwrights don't give answers, they ask questions." Caryl

Churchill

MARGARET THATCHER

Background and Legislation:

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher was elected Britain's first woman Prime Minister. Serving from 1979-1990, she was first leader since Lord Liverpool (in the early 19th c.) to win three elections in a row and to be in office for longest continuous period of the century. Her time in office was marked by strictconservative policies and legislation:

Individualism: Thatcher fostered the importance of the individual. "We don't belong to society, we are all just individuals doing the best we can for ourselves."

Privatism: Thatcher moved the country away from Socialismwith the privatization of national industries.

Monetarism: Thatcher's policies supported monetarism to control inflation.

Lack of Consensus: Thatcher did not favor a consensus approach and reduced the number of meetings within her cabinet.

Economic Gap: The wealthiest 10% of the population saw their disposable income soar while the poorest 10% stayedthe same.

Reduction of Unions: During Thatcher's time in power, seven trade union and employment acts were enacted resulting in the significant reduction of unions.

Unemployment: Unemployment was at its highest since WorldWar II.

Women's Rights

"It is a tragedy that, having become the UK's first women prime minister, she did so much to undermine the position of women in society."

Patricia Hewitt, former UK Secretary of State for Health

When Margaret Thatcher took office in 1979, it seemed that theWomen's Rights movement had achieved a victory. However it soon became apparent that even a symbolic victory was not a cause for celebration. During her term, not only did Thatcher perpetuate the idea that women must be masculine in order to succeed, she instituted a variety of legislation that conflicted with women's interests:

Thatcher's View: In 1982, the year Top Girls premiered, Thatcher contended, "The struggle for women's rights has largely been won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone forever. I hate those strident tones we hear from some Women's Libbers."

Women in Office: During Thatcher's three terms, she only appointed one woman to her cabinet.

Women's Wages: When the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1975, womenearned 75% of men's wages. Nearing the end of her term in 1988,women earned 65%.

Single Mothers: Thatcher felt "There has recently been a full scale and deliberate assault on the institution of the family itself, on the innocence of childhood, on the man's role as bread-winner, on the binding sacramental nature of marriage." Thus she instituted many policies that adversely affected single working mothers. These policies included a divorce law that allowed men to pay less alimony and the reduction of social security, causing a higher number of single working mothers to be dependent on welfare.

Selected Timeline

From Thatcher's Election to the Premiere of Top Girls(Adapted from Thatcher's Theatre by D. Keith Peacock)

1979January"The Winter of Discontent"--coordinated strike by public service workers throughout Britain.

MayGeneral Election victory of the Conservatives under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher who becomes Britain's first woman Prime Minister.

1980AugustUnemployment in Britain exceeds 2 million for first time since1935.

SeptemberLabour Party Conference votes in favor of unilateral nuclear disarmament.

1981JanuaryRonald Reagan is elected president of the United States of America.

AprilRiots in Brixton, South London.

JulyThe police use C.S. gas against rioters in Toxteth in Liverpool and Moss Side in Manchester. "Copycat" riots take place in other English cities.

DecemberUnemployment in Britain reaches 3 million.

1982AprilThe Argentineans invade the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. A British task-force ejects them and inspires an outburst of jingoism in Britain.

JuneThe Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is revitalized as a result of the government's decision to spend over 10 billion pounds on Trident missiles and to permit the siting of U.S. Cruise and Pershing missiles in Britain. 250,000 people demonstrate in London's Hyde Park and 12,000 women join hands around the Greenham Common airforce base where the US missilesare to be deployed.

SeptemberThe Labour Party Conference expels members of Militant Tendency.

FEMINISM

There are three generally agreed upon classifications of feminism:

Radical Feminism:

Radical feminism grew out of the struggle for racial equality during the Civil Rights movement. Radical feminists believe that men and women have different value systems. They see women's value system as superior, with men as oppressor. Therefore, women are viewed as their own class who must overthrow the dominant male class.

Liberal Feminism:

Liberal feminism grew out of 19th century intellectuals who said that all humans were created equal, thus this included women. Liberal feminists admit that women are not the same as men, however they ascertain that there should be equal rights under the law. The Equal Rights Amendment grew out of this movement.

Both of these forms of feminism have often been met with critique. Caryl Churchill, in particular, advocates for a third kind of feminism, traditionally associated with Britain:

Socialist Feminism:

Socialist feminists believe that feminism is not only linked to gender, but also to class. If equal rights for men and women are only a commodity of the wealthy, there is no equality. They believe that society has been structured and defined by patriarchy, thus women and their success are defined solely by patriarchal standards. Thus they advocate a complete restructuring of society that takes in the considerations of both men and women.

CARYL CHURCHILL

From Feminist Writers, St. James Press 1996Biography Resource Center

Since the mid-1970s, Caryl Churchill has ranked among the best-known political playwrights in England, indeed among the most popular playwrights of any sort. "Of course socialism andfeminist aren't synonymous," she told an interviewer in 1984, "but I feel strongly about both and wouldn't be interested in a form of one that didn't include the other." Her work deals with a variety of issues, many of them strongly politically charged, yet she has managed to reach audiences from across the political spectrum. Not only do political critics find much to admire in her work, ordinary playgoers also find a consistently good night of theater.

In 1958, while she was earning her degree in English literature at Oxford, Churchill's first play, Downstairs, was produced by the Oriel College Dramatic Society. In the 1960s and early 1970s, she honed her craft by writing short plays, mostly for radio and television broadcast, while living in London and caring for her young children. The plays from this period frequently focus on male characters and are often aboutfamily and psychological themes.

Churchill's first major theatrical break came in 1972, when the Royal Court Theatre in London produced Owners. The play addresses issues of social class and power structures. Throughthe 1970s, Churchill continued to write for radio and television, but she devoted more of her time to the stage. During this period, her work increasingly focused on women characters and the political content of her plays was on the rise.

In 1976 Churchill wrote Vinegar Tom for the feminist theater collective Monstrous Regiment. The author has suggested that this was a turning point for her, that by working with an overtly political company she became more aware of the power of her work to teach audiences. She also engaged in close collaboration for the first time, an act which she considers vital to her feminist aesthetic. Vinegar Tom is a story about witch hunting in 17th-century England. These women are victimsof a system that criminalizes their aspirations and their sexuality. Sexual politics was also the focus of Cloud Nine,

which enjoyed a successful run at the Royal Court in 1979 and later transferred to New York, giving Churchill her first international hit. Set half in colonial Africa in the 19th century and half in contemporary London, it follows one family's struggles with their own social and sexual desires and with changing norms for sexual behavior. Cloud Nine secured Churchill's reputation for theatrical experimentation, as wellas giving her popular success.

Though she was already well established by this time, the 1980s brought the playwright's most successful period. Curiously, while the social and political climate in England was becoming increasingly conservative under then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill's feminist and socialistplays continued to please audiences and critics alike. Stagingthe social and financial rise of a woman executive, Top Girls (1982), asks audiences to define what "feminism" means and examine the price women often pay for success in the traditionally male work world. Churchill's next play, Fen (1983), is also about work, but it moves to the other end of the class spectrum, examining the bleak lives of agricultural laborers in England's fen country. Women here, the author reminds us, often do the most backbreaking labor by day yet still remain responsible for the care of their families after hours. But men, and even children, are not immune from the deadening routine of work with little reward and less chance of escape. Churchill's biggest commercial success in England was Serious Money (1987). An exuberant romp written in jangling verse, this expos‚ of corruption and greed in the world of high finance extended Top Girls's critique of success to consider the ethically hollow world of stock traders, both female and male.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Churchill continued to experiment with form, and much of her work began to take on a rather dreamlike quality. Both A Mouthful of Birds (1986) and Lives ofthe Great Poisoners (1991) integrate dance, mime, and song with Churchill's text; in them she demonstrates her continued commitment to a collaborative creative process. The Skriker (1994) uses elements of ancient British folklore as well as choreographed movement to tell a tale of contemporary London. Churchill's Thyestes (1995) is her translation of the play by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Blue Heart (1997) consists of two related short plays, one about a father and daughter, the other about a mother and son. Churchill's second play of 1997, Hotel, is also in two parts: in the first, fourteen people spend an

ordinary night in a hotel but their stories overlap and interweave; in the second part, two people find different waysto disappear. In This is a Chair (1999), two parents try to convince their daughter to eat her vegetables as a supertitle appears over the scene identifying it as The Conflict in Northern Ireland. While such experimental work has proved lesspopularly successful than some of her earlier plays, Caryl Churchill remains a model of mainstream success for a feministplaywright.

REVIEWS

Top Girls premiered on August 28, 1982 at the Royal Court Theatrein London. In December of that year, the production transferred to the Public Theatre in New York. The following year it returned to the Royal Court.

"Staging of Top Girls" by Robert Cushman, The Observer 1982:

Last week Caryl Churchill's Top Girls opened on the Royal Court's main stage. . .Miss Churchill's last play, Cloud Nine, had a complicated time-scheme , simplicity itself compared to what happens in Top Girls. In the first scene Marlene, who has just been made managing director of an employment agency, hosts a dinner party at a London restaurant called La Prima Donna. Her guests are various historical prima donnas: Isabella Bird, Scots Victorian lady traveler; Lady Nijo, thirteenth-century Japanese courtesan turned Buddhist nun, andalso a traveler; Dull Gret, kitchenmaid in armor, centerpiece of a Bruegel painting depicting a female invasion of Hell; Pope Joan; Patient Griselda.

These are all ladies who have suffered. Joan, for example, mayhave been Pope but she ended up stoned to death, having ill-advisedly given birth. On the other hand they are all, in somesense, successes. Even Griselda, as Marlene points out, made it into three bestsellers through the terrible psychological battering she took from her husband.

They all profess devotion to the men in their lives: fathers, emperors, lovers actual or platonic, even husbands. This shocks Marlene; she wants them all as her patron saints, but she can't stomach Griselda, who typically arrives late and will only order cheese and biscuits. At first we share her irritation; after all, she's modern and their archaic. Then our feelings slide.

Dull Gret doesn't say much. She's the real subversive. She-if you except an even more silent waitress- is the only person present not, by birth or adoption, upper class. She is played by Carole Hayman, who appears in the rest of the play as a modern girl similarly disinherited: someone who has dreams butno prospects.

This girl is presented to us as Marlene's niece. The bulk of the play is split between Marlene's London office and her East

Anglican roots. The office is revealing, since not only is Marlene a success herself, but she is in the business of sniffing out success in other people, and of mercilessly weeding out failure. The play here goes down intriguing side-turnings, showing us two of Marlene's juniors, both self-consciously tough, and a variety of their clients.

One of them is nervous and middle-aging, aware of having suppressed her sexuality to survive on men's terms in their world. . .Another is differently androgynous, with salesman fantasies.

Meanwhile there is Marlene's sister, who stayed at home (Isabella Bird's sister also stayed home). . .She points out that Marlene's upward mobility has changed nothing for most women, or indeed most men. Marlene declares herself a Thatcherite, which we might have deduced for ourselves. Her sister's political stance comes as surprise, and seems manufactured for the occasion.

But the play runs thin nowhere else. Thoroughly personal in tone and structure, it manages to be an amazingly full polygonal presentation of a feminist predicament: career womenbehaving like career men. The situation is (mostly) deplored, but sympathy is withheld from no one. Miss Churchill also doesfor overlapping dialogue on stage what Robert Altman has done in the movies. . .Max Stafford-Clark directed; I congratulate him, and wonder how he felt at rehearsals.

"Caryl Churchill's 'Top Girls' at the Public" by Frank Rich, The New York Times 1982:

In the long-running "Cloud 9", her first play to be seen in NewYork, the English playwright Caryl Churchill turned our usually well ordered theatrical universe topsy-turvy. She senther cast leaping in and out of two centuries and continents, three genders and even one another's roles. . .Miss Churchill's newest play, which journeyed intact from London tothe Public's Newman Theater last night, is no match for its predecessor, but, happily, it is every bit as intent on breaking rules. The work's title is ''Top Girls,'' and its protagonist, Marlene (Gwen Taylor), is the newly named managing director of the Top Girls Employment Agency in contemporary London. In an opening scene that is almost beyonddaring, Marlene throws a dinner party to celebrate her promotion. The setting is a trendy Anglo-Italian restaurant

called La Prima Donna. The guests, it could be said, are all dead.

The women joining Marlene for white wine and pasta are none other than real and fictional prima donnas of the past: Isabella Bird, a Victorian explorer; Lady Nijo, a medieval Oriental concubine turned pioneering Buddhist nun; Dull Gret, the armor-plated woman who led a female charge through hell inBruegel's painting ''Dulle Griet''; Pope Joan, who may have presided briefly over the Vatican in the ninth century, and Chaucer's Patient Griselda. Dressed in their appropriate historical outfits (amusingly designed by Pam Tait), these women chattily compare notes and laud their hostess on her newsuccess. Such is Miss Churchill's great gift for making the illogical both human and plausible that we quickly forget thatwe're in a time warped cloud-cuckoo land.

The wild tricks of ''Top Girls'' don't end there. Though we never see Marlene's party guests again, other surprises followas Miss Churchill gets to the main business of her play, whichis primarily a realistic probing of Marlene's rise to the top at Top Girls. The actresses in the company keep popping up in new roles; the setting switches abruptly and at first inexplicably between London and a dreary working-class home inprovincial Suffolk; the evening ends with a scene that predates the rest of the action by a year. Miss Churchill alsomakes abundant use of overlapping, intentionally indecipherable dialogue, Robert Altman-style, as well as of lengthy pauses and stage waits that would make any Pinter playseem as frantic as a Marx Brothers sketch by comparison.

One cannot be too thankful for all these brave gambles, the strangely compelling and somehow moving silences included. Miss Churchill sees the theater as an open frontier where lives can be burst apart and explored, rather than as a cage that flattens out experience and diminishes it. Because of thestartling technique and several passages of dazzling writing, ''Top Girls'' is almost always fascinating, even when it is considerably less than involving.

Some of the play's slippage does occur, it's true, when Miss Churchill's experiments run on self-indulgently. It seems unduly perverse that almost every scene must trail off before ending. The fantasy prologue, fun as it may be, is seriously overlong; later on, the author has trouble resisting the urge to lecture. Yet the major difficulty in ''Top Girls'' is a

matter of content, not form. To these male American ears, MissChurchill's new statement about women and men seems far more simplistic and obvious than the fervent pansexuality of ''Cloud 9.''

The message announces itself in that first scene, which provesan almost anthropological search for the ties that bind history's strongest sisters. Like Marlene, the famous icons ather table are ''top girls'' - courageous women who have ''comea long way'' by accomplishing ''extraordinary achievements.'' But they've all paid a price for success: They've sacrificed their personal lives and children, been abused by men and lostcontact with women who did not become ''top girls.'' And we soon learn that Marlene, the present-day inheritor of their hard struggles for independent womanhood, is worse off yet. Inorder to fight her way up from her backwater proletarian rootsto the executive suite, she has become, figuratively speaking,a male oppressor.

When we watch Marlene's chillingly antiseptic agency in action, we quickly see that it is designed to coach its femaleclients into adopting the most odious male traits and values: the steely selfishness and aggression that ostensibly propel one forward in the Darwinist business world. Marlene's own emotional and sexual life is as barren as Lady Macbeth's - shepointedly recoils at the mere mention of the word ''gynecology.'' She's even abandoned her illegitimate and dull-witted daughter (Carole Hayman), leaving her sister to raise the girl as her own child instead.

Marlene treats women of lower social status - from the waitress at La Prima Donna to her clients and family - as callously as any man might; she chastises the working class she's left behind as ''lazy and stupid.'' Finally, she even consigns her tubby, misfit daughter to the social junk heap bycoldly remarking, ''She's a bit thick -a bit funny. She's not going to make it.'' To Marlene, the ability to make it by malesuccess standards is the only criterion of female worth.

No one can deny that women like Marlene exist. As Miss Churchill ultimately makes too clear, her heroine is partly a caricature of the ultimate British ''top girl,'' Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But the playwright seems to beg her complicated issues by showing us only her monstrous heroine at one extreme, and, at the other, the victimized women that the Marlenes of this world exploit and betray. The

absence of the middle range - of women who achieve without imitating power-crazed men and denying their own humanity - isan artificial polemical contrivance that cuts the play off at the heart. We're never quite convinced that women's choices are as limited and, in the play's final word, ''frightening'' as the stacked case of ''Top Girls'' suggests. Even in England, one assumes, not every woman must be either an iron maiden or a downtrodden serf.

Still, we're often carried along by the author's unpredictablestagecraft, her observant flashes of angry wit and pathos. Among the best moments are the brief and scabrously sketched interview sessions with the pathetic clients at Top Girls and the affecting final confrontation between Marlene and her nonachieving sister (Deborah Findlay). . .The production at the Public has been transported from the adventurous Royal Court Theater, under a laudable new exchange program. The run is limited to a month with this cast. However trying ''Top Girls'' can be, that doesn't alter the fact that New Yorkers have a rare but brief opportunity to see a brand-new work by an important English playwright in its original staging. Everything considered, it might well be wise to catch what Miss Churchill is up to while you can and quarrel with her later.

THE WOMEN OF TOP GIRLS

Pope Joan

Pope Joan's story is an elusive one for it is uncertain whether she even existed. However, most accounts hold that shewas born in Germany to English parents in the 9th century. Although it was not customary for girls to be educated, Joan'sfather educated her while they traveled Europe. Different accounts ascertain that she was disguised as a boy and taken either to live in a convent or was taken in by a monk. However, it is generally agreed upon that it was at this time that she took a lover, moved to Athens with him, and continuedto be a pupil.

Eventually the two made their way to Rome, where Joan became apopular teacher. She rose to the position of Cardinal, and after the death of Pope Leo, she was elected Pope John

Anglicus. From 855 to 858, she reigned. During this time, she again took another lover and became pregnant.

It is said that on the Rogation Day in 858 while processing through the streets of Rome, Joan gave birth in the middle of the street. Some accounts maintain that she was stoned to death in the very spot where she gave birth, while others holdthat she was banished to a convent for the rest of her life.

Controversy still abounds as to the existence of Pope Joan, however there is much evidence to suggest she was indeed real.The Catholic Church seems to have acknowledged her existence up until the time of the Protestant Reformation, when he r story was used to tease Catholics. She is even listed in Platina's Lives of the Pope. Her entry reads as follows:

"Pope Jon VIII: John of English extraction, was born at Mentz and is said to have arrived at Popedom by evil art; for disguising herself like a man, whereas she was a woman, she went when young with her paramour, a learned man, to Athens, and made such progress in learning under the professors there,that coming to Rome, she met with few that could equal, much less go beyond her, even in the knowledge of the scriptures, and by her learned and ingenious readings and disputations, she acquired so great respect and authority that upon the death of Leo (as Martin says) by common consent she was chosenPope in his room. As she was going to the Lateran Church between the Colosseum Theatre (so called the Nero's Colossus) and St. Clement's her travail came upon her, and she died uponthe place, having sat two years, one month, and four days, andwas buried there without any pomp."

In addition to this, after Joan's reign, a chair examination was introduced into the ritual of Papal initiation so as to ensure the Pope's masculinity. Also, for many years the path of the Papal procession was changed with the reason that the original path (as described in Pope Joan's account) was laden with sin.

If Joan did exist, she would have been up against enormous odds. Because of the recent collapse of the Roman Empire, the 9th century was a dangerous and violent time of transition. There was no real social order, for even feudalism had yet to come into existence. Europe existed as one country, with no division of countries; and the Romance languages had yet to develop from Latin.

As is to be expected, this was an extremely misogynistic time.Women had no real rights, and foolish superstition was believed to be true. In addition, education was denied to women because it was seen as unnatural. Thus even if she is only legend, her story challenges the ideology of an era.

Lady Nijo

In 1257 in Kyoto, Japan, Lady Nijo was born. As was custom, she was named after the high-ranking street where she lived (in English, Second Avenue). Her father was Masatada, a man inthe service of the Emperor Go Fukakusa. Because Nijo's mother died when she was very young, the Emperor took the four-year-old Nijo under his care. After her father's death ten years later, the Emperor made Nijo his concubine.

Lady Nijo lived during the Kamakura period which saw a shift from rule by aristocracy to rule by the warrior class. During this time, the ruling class did not live in a palace, but instead had to settle in a variety of large houses owned by wealthy families. More unrest occurred when brothers GoFukakusa and Kameyana were both placed on the throne at young ages, causing a life-long struggle for power.

From 1271-1283, Nijo not only served as GoFukakusa's concubine, but entertained many lovers of her own. These included Akebono (whose real name was Sainoji Sanekane, one ofKyoto's most high-ranking men) and Kameyana (GoFukakusa's own brother, with whom he fought for the throne). Perhaps threatened by these other men, the Emperor threw Nijo out of his court at the age of twenty-six. From there, Nijo became a Buddhist nun, devoting her life to travel and prayer, however she still maintained her connections with Kyoto.

That is the last that is known of Lady Nijo. In 1307, her autobiography was published which chronicled from 1271 (the year she became the Emperor's concubine) to 1306 (her days as a Buddhist nun). Warned by her late father in a dream, Nijo wrote her memoirs in order to ensure the prestige and honor ofher family. In the early fourteenth century, Japanese women's writing was fairly common. In fact, Nijo modeled her story after the eleventh century Tales of Gengi.

Ultimately, Nijo's text was filed under the wrong name in the Imperial Household Library in Tokyo, causing her story to be completely unknown for thousands of years. In 1940, a Japanese

scholar discovered the text and, despite delays, made it available to the world. Today, The Confessions of Lady Nijo endures as a vivid account of ancient Japanese court life.

Patient Griselda

Patient Griselda's tale was preserved in the literary cannon by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales in the 14th c. The Cleric (or Clerk) tells her story but admits he heard it from Francesco Petrarca. In fact, the story also has ties to Giovanni Boccaccio who's Decameron was based on European folklore.

Griselda was born the daughter of a poor farmer named Janiculain the village of Saluzzo, Italy. Chaucer writes, "If one speaks of the beauty of virtuous acts, then she was among the fairest under the sun, though she was reared in poverty."

The Marquis of Saluzzo, Walter, was in search of a bride. On the day of the wedding, no one knew whom he was to marry. In atriumphant procession through the village, he arrived at Janicula's door and requested Griselda's hand. Although Janicula agreed, Walter ensured that Griselda would always obey him. He asked, " [Are] you. . .prepared to submit willingly to whatever I may desire, and to agree that I shall be at liberty to cause you delight or pain, as I think best, without your grumbling about it, night and day?" Griselda humbly agreed.

She was then dressed by his court and led to the castle to be wed. Although it seemed their marriage was a peaceful one, Walter became consumed with testing the faithfulness of his new wife. When Griselda gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Walter commanded that the child be killed. True to her earlier word, Griselda gave up the child asking "at least bury this little body in some place where the beasts and birdscannot devour it." However the child was actually taken to Bologna to be raised there by Walter's sister and her husband,the Earl of Panik.

Four years later, Griselda again became pregnant, this time with a boy. Walter again ordered that the child be killed, to which Griselda patiently agreed. As before, the boy was unknowingly sent to Bologna.

Although Griselda was completely devoted to her husband (she claimed she would gladly die for "death cannot compare to yourlove"), Walter decided to give her the ultimate test. He claimed that he had had enough of Griselda and was to be married to someone much younger. The people of Saluzzo mournedGriselda's loss and followed her as she marched in rags back to her former home. The people cursed Walter, for he had developed a reputation of treachery.

Walter's antics did not stop there however. He called Griseldaback to the castle, saying he was short a maid and needed her to help prepare the guest rooms. When she returned, Walter revealed that the new bride and her younger brother who had just arrived from Bologna were his and Griselda's own children. Walter felt he had given Griselda the ultimate test in patience and faithfulness, and the family was reunited.

Although it seems the moral of the story is that that faithfulness and obedience are rewarded, even Chaucer tells the story in a pejorative light. He advises that married men not use Walter's tests as an example. Furthermore, he argues that wives should stand up for themselves, writing, "Don't be hoodwinked in your innocence. Take the control in your own hands."

Dull Gret

Dull Gret is the incarnation of Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel's1563 work Dulle Griet ('Mad Meg'). The painting shows a warrior-like woman battling physical demons and entering the jaws of hell. Scholars cannot seem to agree on one interpretation of the painting, however they offer many possibilities

Some argue that the painting is a critique of society, depicting popular Dutch idioms such as "to tackle something with iron gloves- to be violent" and "to ladle with the big spoon- to be wasteful or extravagant." In this way he is making a mockery of others' extravagance. One scholar purportsthat with such an emphasis on fire, the painting is meant to be a landscape of the power of alchemy. Thus, Dulle Griet represents Bruegel himself, discovering the ways of alchemy.

Another interpretation is that Dulle Griet serves as an ideological precursor to Picasso's Guernica. In this way, Bruegel is protesting the Spanish occupation, offering us a glimpse at the ravages and terror of war.

The interpretation most appropriate for Top Girls is that that Bruegel was using the conventions of the time period by displaying the anti-feminine. He is showing us woman as an independent warrior, as an oppressor.

Isabella Bird

"Travelers are privileged to do the most improper things with perfect propriety, that is one charm of traveling."- Isabella Bird Bishop

Isabella Bird was born in 1831 in Northern England. The daughter of the Reverend Edward Bird, she spent her adolescence traveling around England while her father preachedin various towns and cities. It was also under her father's guidance that she learned to ride a horse.

As she matured, however, her mobility slowed because of her declining health. At the age of 18, she had a spinal tumor removed, leaving her with constant back pain. In addition she suffered from insomnia and abscesses of the foot. Finding no medical solution to cure her pain, a doctor suggested she travel.

In 1854, she departed for North America finding that "rough knocking about, open-air life, in combination with sufficient interest, is the one in which my health and spirits are the best." Upon her return, she sought publication of her travel diary at the insistence of her father. And in January 1856 TheEnglishwoman in America was published. Ever the churchgoer, she donated the proceeds of its successful sale to poor Scottish fishermen.

After the death of her parents, Isabella put her travels on hold to return home to do volunteer work. Soon, however, her health began to decline, and in 1868 she resumed her travels, publishing two more books. It was during this time that she fell in love with the grizzly and one-eyed "Mountain Jim."

The love affair was short-lived, as she had to return home to take care of her sister, Henrietta (called Hennie). The two had a close relationship- Isabella would devotedly write letters to Hennie while abroad. In fact, these letters comprised significant portions of Isabella's publications. At this time the two had moved to Scotland, splitting their time between Edinburgh and the Isle of Mull.

Finding time for a trip to Asia and another book, Isabella returned to Scotland in 1880 to nurse Hennie for her last fiveweeks of life. After Hennie's death, Isabella finally acceptedthe persistent proposal of Hennie's doctor, John Bishop. Although he was ten years younger, his health failed, and in 1886 he died.

Having taken a hiatus in traveling in exchange for married life, Isabella returned to travel although she was in her fifties. Her travels took her to India, Persia, Kurdistan, Turkey, and Morocco, among others. Everywhere she went, she continued to write and photograph her surroundings resulting in seven more publications.

In 1892, she became the first woman ever invited to speak at the Royal Geographical Society, and a few years later she became the only European woman ever to stand before the Emperor of Morocco.

In 1904, at the age of seventy-two, she finally lost her life-long battle with illness. However, even on her deathbed her indomitable spirit shone through: her final words were, "Oh what a shouting there will be!"

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Caryl Churchill/ Top Girls

Aston, Elaine. Caryl Churchill.Biography Resource Center, Emerson Library Database:Cousin Geraldine. Churchill, the PlaywrightKritzer, Amelia Howe. The Plays of Caryl Churchill: Theatre of Empowerment.Randall, Phyllis R. Caryl Churchill: A Casebook"Monsters and Heroines: Caryl Churchill's Women" by Lisa Merrill"Caryl Churchill's Top Girls Catches the Next Wave" by Janet Brown

Margaret Thatcher/ British Politics

Riddell, Peter. The Thatcher Decade: How Britain Has Changed in the 1980's.Stone-Lee, Ollie. "Thatcher's Role for Women.""The Thatcher Years in Statistics."Williams, Zoe. "The Accidental Feminist."

Feminism/Feminist Theatre

Goodman, Lizbeth. Contemporary Feminist Theatres: To Each Her OwnPeacock, D. Keith. Thatcher's Theatre: British Theatre and Drama in the EightiesLovell, Terry. British Feminist Thought: A Reader.

"Introduction""What is a Housewife"- Ann Oakley"The 'Family Wage'": Some Problems for Socialists and Feminists"- Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh"Pandora's Box: Subjectivity, Class and Sexuality in SocialistFeminist Criticism"- Cora Kaplan

Smith, Harold L, British Feminism I the 20th Century."British Feminism from the 1960's to the 1980's" by Elizabeth Meehan

The Characters

Brazell, Karen (Translator). The Confessions of Lady Nijo.Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales.Cross, Donna Woolfolk. Pope Joan: A Novel.Delevoy, Robert L. Bruegel.Durrell, Lawrence. Pope Joan: Adapted from the Greek of Emmanuel Royidis.Hodgson, Barbara. No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers.Mettra, Claude. Bruegel.Slung, Michele. Living with Cannibals and Other Women's Adventures.

http://www.emerson.edu/emersonstage/shows/0708/topgirls.cfm (Accessed 22/10/09)