The Royal Grammar School Newcastle (RGS) will welcome audiences to see Caryl Churchill’s play, Top Girls, next week. The play will be performed on December 10th and 11th at the school’s Performing Arts Centre.

Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill, described as “the best British play ever by a woman dramatist” by Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington. The play explores the position of women in contemporary society and the meaning of successful women through the struggle of Marlene, the main character.

Last month, RGS performed Journey’s End, a totally male play. Therefore “it becomes the perfect time to do this play,” said Alan King, the director of this performance and an RGS English teacher. “Top Girls is, on the other hand, an entirely all-girl production. So we thought it fit quite nicely in at the end of this term.”

Cast members will play at least two different parts as was the original intention of the play’s first director. As a result, in King’s opinion it will be a “complex” play.

“It is not immediately acceptable, so it will be a challenge to the audience members, and also a challenge to me and the cast members,” said King, who claimed that it is not like the plays he directed before, and it is the first time for him to direct an all-female drama. “But it is the feeling like the first production in 1982 that we want to present.”

The cast members are year 11 to 13 students at RGS, who were chosen from auditions in late September.

For tickets to Top Girls, please contact the office of Performing Arts Centre by Email, or by phone on 0191 2128930 to reserve a seat.