Top Girls

The closest I've come to having a panic attack in a theatre was five mins into Drunk Enough To Say I Love You, when I realised there was no realistic way of getting out.

This looks like another 'get credit for my tickets' situation.

I think Norris saw a quick win in terms of getting wimmins in theatre but I don't understand, from the sounds of it, why this production has been in a way that just doesn't work. Regardless of quality.

Churchill has certainly been over-represented during the Norris regime

Having watched this tonight, all I can say is and this is being polite, it’s a total mess in my opinion. Act 1 just went on and on and on and on. I honestly thought that after the crazy dinner party opening finished that was it for Act 1 and then to my horror more was to follow. By the end of Act 1 I had actually lost the will to live and was seriously contemplating bailing out at the interval, though I decided to play it out and see where this mess was going. Though sat in the Circle tonight, there where quite a few patrons around me who decided wisely it seems to have made the decision to wave the white flag and not come back.

The beginning of Act 2 was actually promising with the two sisters and was actually interesting to watch and just as things started going the play ends just like that. I actually thought maybe there was more to come. Wrong. Lights up and the cast take their bows. Absolutely no proper conclusion to this play. It was like someone had wrote something but had no ending sorted out.

I try to find something positive to say about even the worst theatre stuff, but I’m actually at a loss to find anything nice to say. This is definitely NOT recommended as a watch (only if you want to watch a mess). I can’t even bring myself to give it 1*.

I too saw the original production and loved it, but it was so long ago that I can remember nothing more.  I'm sure you're right about how it's done being critical but maybe also its time has come and gone?  It certainly no longer appeals to me in the least but then that's true of everything by Caryl Churchill - and I had continued to try, but will give up now, based on  the last attempt.

For what it's worth: I'm amazed at the general tenor of this thread. I'm an American who has loved and taught theater for over 40 years, and I don't know anyone who doesn't love Caryl Churchill. I have taught and directed her plays, and have seen every production of her work that I've had the opportunity to see. She's so prolific that of course some of her plays are stronger than others--she's a fearless and passionate experimenter who has changed the British theater more than anyone else now living. Top Girls is one of the masterworks of 20th c. drama. I haven't seen the NT production yet--I'm bringing a group of 24 Americans to see it (along with 9 other plays) in June--and I'm more than slightly worried about the decision to undo Churchill's doubling, which seems to me integral to the play. So I may or may not love this production. But to say that the play itself is incoherent or nonsensical is to sell one of the great works of British theater very short indeed.

At the interval. Completely baffled and bewildered. First experience of top girls and haven’t a clue what’s going on. That first act was so tedious and so long. If anyone sees this - is the second act only going to be 40 minutes or should I go and have a pint?

Drinking is the better option believe me.

So......it’s press night tonight. I’m curious to see if the reviews will agree with most of us, or see something I certainly didn’t!

Not everyone.

And what makes you think Aleks Sierz is dishonest? One of the best critics around, IMHO.

There's... I'm not quite sure how to put this, but you seem worryingly unaware that people can have different opinions of a thing without one of the people automatically being "wrong"?