CURTAIN CALL: This one's for the ladies

Each week, Michael Gold breezes past those big-name theater companies to turn a spotlight on Philly's indie stages. This week: Temple Theater examines girl power, Nova D Arts Collective sends one across the pond, and beauty queens is the focus of one UArts student's senior directorial project.

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CURTAIN CALL: This one's for the ladies

POSTED: Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 11:00 AM

Meryl Streep and The Iron Lady did a nice job softening Margaret Thatcher’s reputation as a strong-willed (and occasionally soulless) leader. What the movie ignored, however, were the ramifications Maggie’s tenure as England’s prime minister had beyond 10 Downing Street. Chief among them: a debate over whether women had to adopt stern, cold personas in order to succeed in the workplace.

Set in the midst of the Thatcher era, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls explores the cost of sacrificing femininity for success. Churchill follows leading lady Marlene, who left a working-class home to become an affluent career-woman. As the play unfolds, however, Marlene’s goal-focused life feels increasingly empty. Her cut-throat work seems anything but appealing, making her and the audience question whether a sacrifice-heavy road to the top was truly worth it. While Temple Theater’s production comes 30 years after Top Girls’ initial debut, the feminist drama is still bound to strike a chord with local audiences.

April 11-22, $15-20, Randall Theater, 2020 N. 13th St., temple.edu.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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