Some Quite-Deafening Yawps

by Andrew Michael Flynn

While it is not exactly a blunt instrument that author Caryl Churchill uses to bring certain feminist issues to light in “Top Girls”, she demands that you read the play more than once to get a better understanding of each of them that she is shining a spotlight on, such as competition in the workplace, sexual assault and the repercussions of it, and gendered repression finally being allowed to speak out loudly. Along with reading the play four times to truly get a snapshot of the author’s intent, it was also a pleasure to view the 1991 BBC adaptation of Churchill’s work. This extra measure helped with the comprehension of the dialogue since overlapping speech and varying cross-talk is pervasive in this modern triumph of didactic feminism.

In the first scene of “Top Girls”, a number of notable female historical figures gather at Marlene’s dinner table for an unforgettable night of harrowing anecdotes, sharing previously untold accounts of abuse, all while imbibing appropriate amount of quality booze. One of the accounts is by Nijo, a true-to-life Buddhist nun who used to be concubine in 13^th-century Japan. Having lived the life of a sexual slave, she speaks about a time in her teenage life where she was violently assaulted: “Well I was only fourteen and I knew he meant something but I didn’t know what. He sent me an eight-layered gown and I sent it back. So when the time came I did nothing but cry. My thin gowns were badly ripped” (Churchill 476). There is some catharsis to her presence in the play where later in that same scene she celebrates a brief conspiracy between herself and Lady Mashimizu for their own brand of justice for the guilty Emperor having “beat us all” (485). She goes on, “Genki seized him and I beat him till he cried out and promised he would never order anyone to hit us again” (485).

Whereas the issue of sexual assault against women is emphasized as a major feminist issue in “Top Girls”, gendered competition in the workplace is underscored as well. The first scene in Act II features a passionate disagreement between Mrs. Kidd and Marlene. Mrs. Kidd’s husband, Howard, does not know that she has visited the Top Girls agency to let Marlene know her two cents about Howard’s situation. Mrs. Kidd proceeds to quarrel with Marlene about the shakeup in her household that has apparently caused Howard to fall ill because Marlene has been promoted over him. Mrs. Kidd states “What’s it going to do to him working for a woman? I think if it was a man he’d get over it as something normal.” (Churchill 494) Steadfast and trying to be diplomatic, Marlene replies with a statement of reality that shows her backbone: “I think he’s going to have to get over it” (494). Quite emotional about her new reality, Mrs. Kidd goes on with her complaint: “It’s me that bears the brunt. I’m not the one that’s been promoted. I put him first every inch of the way. And now what do I get? You women this, you women that. It’s not my fault. You’re going to have to be very careful how you handle him. He’s very hurt” (494). Being strong-willed herself, Marlene ends this diatribe of Mrs. Kidd’s and tells bluntly to get lost in a very pointed way, much to the enjoyment of the visiting Angie.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Debates came to mind with these specific feminist issues from Caryl Churchill’s play. Secretary Clinton was viewed not at all as the equal to the blustery Donald Trump, who used physical intimidation tactics and his special brand of general buffoonery in the many attempts to trip her up and throw her off her well-practiced game. It was a wild and unfortunate display of misogynist bravado and almost had nothing to do with partisan politics inside of the actual debate minutes. While Trump did not actually assault Clinton in any physical manner, reading the angered face of the Republican Nominee for President was not entirely difficult as he desired power in nearly any fashion that would not have him arrested. It would end up that his moronic hubris made him appear as powerful enough to garner a win that election season, somehow. Although by the time the debates happened, most of everybody’s mind was already made up…and then it was an electoral college numbers game from that juncture in time.

A “barbaric yawp” describes a unique and feral kind of soul-defining screech into the vast night sky. At some level, Churchill’s tones and style feature the same kind of pain that can only be released into the available void, as she has much to say in her text and subtext of “Top Girls”. Walt Whitman’s masterwork poem “A Song of Myself” features this couplet:

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” (Whitman)

The 16 characters that makeup Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls” are all bubbling with their own, respective brands of barbaric yawps that have been stifled and subjugated for far too long. In these tone and style choices, the lines of overlapping dialogue are usually met with a raise in voice and a punctuation on points made from the female characters that speak their harrowing thoughts. The device of alcohol being drunk in the opening scene’s dinner party is merely for the stage play itself, as the suppressed expressions and previously withheld yawps are surely bottled no more in what has been cobbled together by Churchill as a modern masterpiece of drama itself.

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Works Cited

Churchill, Caryl. “Top Girls.” The Longman Anthology of Drama and Theater: A Global Perspective, Longman, New York, NY, 2002, pp. 476-503.

Phillips, Roshonda. “Week 6 – Module Overview.” LIT-323-H7015 Studies in Drama 22EW2, Southern New Hampshire University, https://learn.snhu.edu/d2l/le/content/1201147/viewContent/21082487/View

Stafford-Clark, Max, director. “Top Girls” by Caryl Churchill. Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (via YouTube), BBC, 1991, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGWD0r0f9Go, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMoY_NthPdI&t=2813s. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Whitman, Walt. “Song of Myself (1892 Version) by Walt Whitman.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 1892, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45477/song-of-myself-1892-version.