Theatre @ York Takes "Top Girls" Downtown

TORONTO, November 19, 1998 -- Theatre @ York goes downtown with a new production of Caryl Churchill's provocative drama Top Girls, opening at Theatre 620 on November 27.

Mark Wilson directs this modern morality play by one of Britain's leading playwrights.

Set in the 1980s in Margaret Thatcher's London, Top Girls takes a clear-eyed look at the price of success, traced through one woman's climb to the top of the corporate ladder.

To celebrate her promotion to the executive suite, an ambitious businesswoman summons a group of "high achievers" -- women from history and legend -- to a dinner party. The story of her life, and theirs, gives a painful reckoning of the choices, concessions and compromises that women in particular must make to get ahead in the world.

As director Wilson points out, the relentless dissection of this "top girl" underlines a dilemma that has only sharpened in the 16 years since the play was first produced.

The concept of 'living to work', rather than 'working to live', is a hallmark of our times," he says. "Now, more than ever, people - and especially women - are caught in a conflict between career and family, between competition and caring."

As the father of an infant daughter, Wilson readily admits he has a personal stake in this theme.

"Becoming a father has politicized me," he says. "I want my child to be able to make her way in the world without having to sacrifice personal happiness for professional success."

Wilson, an alumnus of York's Graduate Program in Theatre, currently heads the acting program at Toronto's Randolph School of the Arts and teaches acting at York University. His recent directing credits include Asphalt Fever in the Summerworks Festival, That Dorothy Parker in the Toronto Fringe Festival, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean for the Randolph School and The Tempest for the Georgian Theatre Festival.

Top Girls features performers from the graduate and undergraduate acting ensembles of York University's Theatre Department. Sets and costumes are by sessional professor Yvonne Sauriol, whose design credits include productions at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, London's Grand Theatre and the Globe Theatre, Regina. Lighting design is by Paul Major, a recent graduate of the Theatre Department.

Following hard on the heels of Theatre @ York's season opener, Piano, which plays at York University from November 24, Top Girls is the first of two productions the company will mount off-campus this year. By taking some of its shows downtown - as it has done before with considerable success -- Theatre @ York is extending its reach to bring its program and its talented young artists before a wider audience.

Top Girls previews Thurs. Nov. 26, opens Fri. Nov. 27 and runs through Sat. Dec. 5 at Theatre 620, located in the St. Vladimir Institute at 620 Spadina Avenue (note: no performance Mon. Nov. 30). Showtime is 8:00 p.m. with a matinee Sun. Nov. 29 at 2:00 p.m. Admission is $12.50, students/seniors $8, preview $5, matinee PWYC. Tickets are available through TicketMaster, tel. 872-1111. For more information call (416) 736-5172 ext. 5 or email cmore@yorku.ca

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For more information, please contact:

Brigitte Kleer
Manager, Public Relations
Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
(416) 736-2100 ext. 77143
email: bkleer@yorku.ca