Plot Summary (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Plot summary
Top Girls is a two-act play that uses a non-linear structure to explore themes of female ambition, success and sacrifice. The play moves between different time periods and locations, requiring careful attention to understand how the scenes connect thematically rather than chronologically.
Understanding the structure
The play doesn't follow traditional chronological order. Act One begins with a surreal dinner party featuring historical and mythical women, then moves to contemporary scenes. Act Two is set in the present day but includes a flashback to one year earlier, revealing crucial information about the main characters' relationships.
This fragmented timeline reflects the fractured relationships between the characters, particularly between the sisters Marlene and Joyce, and between Marlene and her daughter Angie. The structure itself becomes a dramatic device that mirrors the emotional disconnection between characters.
Act one
The celebration dinner
The play opens with Marlene hosting a dinner at a restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of the Top Girls Employment Agency. She has invited five extraordinary women from different historical periods:
- Isabella (a Victorian traveller)
- Nijo (a medieval Japanese courtesan)
- Joan (who disguised herself as a man to become Pope)
- Griselda (from a fairy tale about loyalty)
- Dull Gret (who led an army of women to fight devils)
As the women arrive one by one, they share their remarkable stories. Isabella talks about her travels in Edinburgh and beyond. Nijo describes her life serving the emperor. Joan reveals how she ruled as pope for several years whilst disguised as a man. Griselda recounts her marriage to a cruel prince who tested her loyalty repeatedly. Dull Gret adds crude remarks throughout before eventually sharing how she led women through a village to battle.
The atmosphere grows increasingly intoxicated as they toast Marlene's success. However, darker themes emerge. Nijo becomes emotional about the children she has lost. Pope Joan begins reciting Italian verse before falling ill. Griselda requests water for Joan, but Isabella continues talking, oblivious to Joan's sickness.
This scene establishes important themes about the cost of women's achievement and the sacrifices required for success. Each historical woman achieved greatness but paid a heavy personal price - a pattern that will echo throughout the play.
Jeanine's interview
The following day, Marlene interviews Jeanine at the Top Girls Employment Agency. Jeanine wants to change jobs because she desires higher wages. She is saving money to get married. During the interview, Marlene offers job prospects at a lampshade company and a knitwear manufacturer.
Marlene advises Jeanine not to mention her engagement during interviews, suggesting that revealing her plans to marry might damage her employment prospects. This reveals the systemic discrimination women face when employers assume marriage means reduced commitment to work.
Jeanine agrees to follow this advice and accepts being recommended for both positions. Marlene reminds her to project confidence during the interview.
This scene highlights the difficult choices women face between career ambitions and personal relationships, and the compromises required to succeed in the workplace.
Angie and Kit
The action shifts to Joyce's backyard, where two girls, Angie (aged 16) and Kit (aged 12), are hiding together in a makeshift shelter. Joyce is Angie's guardian, though their relationship appears strained. The girls have a difficult dynamic. Angie cannot see her mother from the yard and shouts for her. When Joan tries to locate Angie, Angie ignores her and declares her hatred. The girls discuss supernatural subjects. Disturbingly, Angie tells Kit that she is planning to kill her mother.
Joyce comes outside offering the girls chocolate biscuits, but they stop talking to avoid being discovered. The girls exchange profanities and insults as they converse.
Angie's Revelation
Angie shares a crucial secret with Kit: she believes that her aunt Marlene is actually her real mother. She plans to visit her aunt in London when she has the opportunity. This belief will drive much of Angie's behaviour throughout the play.
When Joyce finally finds the girls hiding in the backyard, she orders Angie to clean her room. Kit remains behind and talks with Joyce about school. Angie no longer attends school because she disliked it. Joyce expresses concern that Angie's future depends on finding a husband, but Joyce privately doubts that any man would want Angie. When Angie returns wearing a nice dress that is slightly too small, Joyce immediately scolds her for wearing it. After Joyce leaves earshot, Angie confides in Kit that she plans to wear this dress to murder her mother with a brick.
This scene reveals Angie's troubled emotional state, her difficult relationship with Joyce, and her fantasy about Marlene being her true mother.
Act two
Monday morning at the agency
Employees Nell and Win arrive at the Top Girls Employment Agency on Monday morning. The women discuss their weekends before turning to their coworker Howard, who is upset about losing the management position to Marlene. Marlene enters slightly late, and Win notes this. Marlene shares her work agenda for the day. Win comments that she is pleased Marlene beat Howard for the position, and Nell agrees. The women then begin their working day.
Louise's interview
Win interviews Louise, a 46-year-old woman who has worked for the same company for many years. Louise has been repeatedly passed over for promotions and is ready for a change. She was the only woman at the company apart from a younger woman who briefly served as her assistant. She prefers working with men. Win demonstrates understanding and asks Louise whether she drinks. Win praises Louise when she confirms that she does not.
This interview shows how women have been systematically excluded from career advancement, even after years of loyal service. Louise's story represents the experiences of countless women who remained invisible despite their dedication and competence.
Angie's unexpected arrival
Angie unexpectedly appears at the office, surprising Marlene, who is not pleased to see her. Marlene wants to know why Angie is there and when she will be returning home. Angie confirms that her mother Joyce knows her whereabouts. Angie then reveals that the best day of her entire life was when Marlene visited her home the previous year.
Mrs Kidd's confrontation
Howard's wife, Mrs Kidd, interrupts to speak with Marlene. She reveals that Howard is ill and hasn't slept for three nights. She wants Marlene to step down from the management position because Howard has a family to support. She argues that she will bear the brunt of the consequences from this situation. Marlene shows no sympathy to Mrs Kidd's pleas. Mrs Kidd angrily departs, but not before warning Marlene that she will end up miserable and lonely.
Mrs Kidd's confrontation reveals the expectation that women should sacrifice their careers for men's advancement, even when the woman is more qualified. Her final warning to Marlene foreshadows the play's exploration of success and loneliness.
Meanwhile, Nell interviews a 29-year-old woman named Shona who is seeking a management position. Nell discovers that Shona is lying about her experience and is actually only 19 years old.
Win and Angie
Win finds Angie at her desk, and they talk about working at the employment agency. Angie expresses interest in working there someday, inspiring Win to share her own background. Win tells Angie about her education, work experience and marriage in such extensive detail that Angie falls asleep.
Nell enters to inform Win that Howard has had a heart attack but is still alive. Marlene enters to find her sleeping niece and expresses concerns about Angie's future success. This moment reveals Marlene's lack of faith in Angie's abilities and her harsh assessment of her daughter's prospects.
Flashback: one year earlier
The Truth Revealed
The scene flashes back to one year previously. This crucial flashback reveals the central truth of the play: Marlene is actually Angie's biological mother, but Joyce has raised her. The sisters' argument exposes the deep rift between them and the different choices they have made about career versus family.
Joyce, Angie and Marlene are gathered together in Joyce's kitchen. Angie opens presents that Marlene has brought for her. One present is a floral dress that Angie likes. Joyce is surprised to see her sister, and Marlene tells her that Angie invited her. Marlene expected that Joyce knew about this. Angie enters wearing the dress. Angie confesses to arranging the reunion of sisters because she thought they would have enjoyed seeing each other after many years apart.
The women begin sharing a bottle of whiskey. They discuss Mr Connolly, who killed his wife. Joyce reveals that her husband moved out three years previously when Marlene was in America. Joyce sends Angie to prepare for bed. The women begin arguing about past decisions. Joyce accuses Marlene of abandoning her daughter and mother. Marlene counters by criticising Joyce's choice to stay rather than pursue a career. An intoxicated Marlene says that good things lie ahead for the eighties. Both women exchange insults as they continue arguing.
The discussion eventually turns to Angie. Marlene suggests that Angie will be alright, but Joyce disagrees. Joyce says that things really haven't changed much for all of them. Joyce heads to bed, and Angie emerges from her bedroom. Angie sees Marlene and asks whether she is her mum. Marlene asks whether she had a bad dream, and Angie responds that it was terrifying.
Plot structure
The play follows a dramatic arc that can be understood through key moments:
Introduction: Marlene surprises Joyce with a visit to her home (though chronologically this happens one year before the opening dinner scene).
Rising action: The tension builds through several key moments:
- Joyce questions how Marlene could leave her child Angie
- Angie calls Marlene her mum
- Marlene celebrates her promotion with historical women
- Angie tells Kit that she believes Marlene is her mother
- Marlene, Win and Nell interview women for jobs
Climax: Angie surprises Marlene with a visit to her office, the emotional high point of the play.
Falling action: Mrs Kidd confronts Marlene, demanding she step down from her position.
Resolution: Marlene says that Angie will not be successful, revealing her pessimistic view of her daughter's future and completing the play's critique of the costs of female ambition.
Key themes revealed through plot
The plot structure emphasises several important themes:
Maternal sacrifice: The play reveals that Marlene gave up Angie so she could pursue her career, whilst Joyce sacrificed her own opportunities to raise Marlene's child.
The cost of success: The historical women in Act One all achieved remarkable things but paid heavy prices. Marlene's success as managing director comes at the cost of her relationship with her daughter and sister.
Class and politics: The flashback scene reveals the political divide between the sisters, with Marlene optimistic about Thatcher's Britain whilst Joyce sees little real change for working people.
Circular structure: By placing the historical dinner at the beginning and the emotionally revealing flashback at the end, Churchill creates a circular structure that mirrors the play's suggestion that women's situations haven't fundamentally changed despite apparent progress.
Key Points to Remember:
- Top Girls uses a non-linear structure, with Act Two's flashback revealing that Marlene is Angie's biological mother
- The opening dinner scene brings together historical women who achieved success but suffered for it, establishing the play's central theme about the cost of female ambition
- The play contrasts two sisters: Marlene, who chose career over motherhood, and Joyce, who sacrificed her own prospects to raise Marlene's daughter
- Angie represents the next generation, trapped between her birth mother's ambition and her adoptive mother's resentment
- The play ends with Marlene's pessimistic assessment of Angie's future, completing Churchill's critique of whether female 'success' in 1980s Britain truly represents progress