Top Girls at Boston Center for the Arts

It's hard to believe that Caryll Churchill's Top Girls was written in the early '80s. With the book Lean In making a splash in 2013, the topic of women and success is just as fresh and current as it was when Churchill wrote Top Girls, in response to Margaret Thatcher's ambitious rise to power in the UK. Called "the best British play ever from a woman dramatist" by The Guardian, Top Girls follows Marlene, a ruthlessly ambitious career woman, who has seized every opportunity to make it to the top. In the play's famous opening scene, she celebrates her big promotion at a surreal dinner party whose guests are famous women from history and myth. After this celebratory moment, Top Girls changes course to show the cost of Marlene's ambitions. When a young relative shows up unannounced at her workplace, Marlene must examine what the next generations of women will gain (or lose) from the choices she made in her rush to the top.