Feminism is a dish best served hot in Mamaí’s ‘Top Girls’

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

 

The dinner table – where two or more contrary characters are required by convention, circumstance or social obligation to sit and talk – is often used as the centerpiece great plays.  It’s there where proper etiquette and unpleasant temperament collide, resulting in character-defining discomfort, unexpected disclosure and some really good theater. 

 

Shakespeare had Macbeth join Lady Macbeth and various Lords for dinner, only to find his place occupied by Banquo's ghost.  The Bard served up some chilling cuisine during the notorious family feast in “Titus Andronicus.” 

 

The extent of southern family dysfunction and the epitome of narcissistic bohemian behavior unfold over dinner in Tracy Letts “August: Osage County” and Noël Coward's “Hay Fever,” respectively. 

 

It can be argued that some of the most memorable moments in thrillers such as Patrick Hamilton's “Rope,” comedies like Bernard Shaw's “You Never Can Tell,” dramas like Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and such sentimental storytelling as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” take place at the table.

 

And this is certainly the case with “Top Girls,” Caryl Churchill’s treatise on women breaking the glass ceiling that premiered in 1982 at London's Royal Court Theatre, during the cusp of the equal rights movement at the start of the Thatcher era.  An intriguing production of the play is being staged by the Mamaí Theatre Company.

 

For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.