Top Girls (Caryl Churchill)

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Top Girls(Caryl Churchill)

• Comedy Humour

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• Humour is not predictable. In fact, it relies on
  surprise. It relies on logic being suspended in
  some way. It is not familiar and thus comforting.
  It is confronting and because of this we shy
  away.

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How Humour Works

• Assumes shared values / knowledge
• What an individual finds funny is influenced by
  many things the historical period in which we
  live, cultural and social experiences, age,
  gender, etc.
• Humour uncovers our biases and affiliations.
• Built on incongruity the gap between what is
  expected and what is experienced or said.
• (Understatement and exaggeration most common
  methods of creating humour)

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Purpose and effects of humour

1. An element of dramatic structure comic relief
2. Characterisation
3. Develops relationships between characters
4. Critiques established authority
5. Reveals and challenges the audiences assumptions
   biases

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Dramatic Structure

• Skilful manipulation of mood and audience
  response through the sequencing of the comic
  scenes.
• Movement / contrast between moments of profound
  sadness and cacophonous hilarity
• Varies the dramatic pacing and contributes to the
  dramatic tension

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Dramatic structure

• Provides comic relief
• - Eg. The bawdy speculations about the pierced
  chair after Joans account of her stoning
• - Eg. Marlenes interview with Jeanine
  immediately after the end of Act 1
• - Eg. The office banter of Act 2 Sc 3 follows
  the ominous ending of Act 2 Sc 2
• Highlights key issues.
• - Eg. the change in tone and mood in Joans
  story forces the audience to reconsider the cost
  of Joans transgression of patriarchal norms. The
  message becomes even starker because the shift
  from farce to tragedy is so sudden and
  unexpected.

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Characterisation

• Contributes to the presentation of the women as
  clever girls, self-aware and capable of banter
  and repartee.
• Eg. p.5
• Nijo The first half of my life was all sin and
  the second / all repentance.
• Joan And which did you like best?
• Eg. p.49
• Win Were tactfully not mentioning youre
  late.
• Marlene Fucking tube.
• Win Weve heard that one.
• Nell Weve used that one.
• Eg. Joans self-mocking humour (eg. p.6 Anyway
  Im a heresy myself.)

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Develops relationships between characters

• Creates an apparent sense of camaraderie /
  solidarity while masking underlying rivalries
• Fast-paced verbal exchange In the office scenes
  between the top girls wit, banter, flippancy
• Subtly reflects the competition between the women
  undercurrents of one-upmanship
• Prevents any real emotional engagement.

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Develops relationships between characters

• Eg. p.47
• Nell Hes just got to relocate. Hes got a
  bungalow in Dymchurch.
• Win And his wife says.
• Nell The lady wife wouldnt care to relocate.
  Shes going through the change.
• Win. Its his funeral, dont waste your time.
• Nell I dont waste a lot.
• Wins quick grasp of the situation is matched by
  Nells assertion that she doesnt waste a lot
  of time on such job applicants
• Possibly defending her professional competence
  against Wins perceived criticism.

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Develops relationships between characters

• Eg. p.49
• Win I spent the whole weekend at his place in
  Sussex.
• Nell She fancies his rose garden.
• Win I had to lie down in the back of the car so
  the neighbours wouldnt see me go in.
• Nell Youre kidding.
• Win It was funny.
• Nell Fuck that for a joke.
• Marlene Anyway theyd see you in the garden.
• Win The garden has extremely high walls.
• The comedy lies in the disjuncture between their
  matter-of-fact tone and the farcical situation.
• The humour masks the tawdriness of the affair,
  and maintains an emotional distance between the
  women despite the personal nature of what is
  being discussed.

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Critiques established authority

• Undermines / undercuts the hierarchical
  structures upon which power and status depend,
  deflates pomposity, creates a leveling effect
• Especially significant in a play that critiques
  capitalism, socialism, patriarchy, and feminism.
  Important to be able to mock convention and
  authority.
• Mostly directed at the religious establishment.

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Critiques established authority

• Eg. Comic juxtaposition of Grets first word in
  the play, Pig, and Pope Joans entrance ?
  undermines the authority of the office as well as
  the individual
• Eg. The interweaving dialogue about Joans
  chamberlain lover has Gret making comments that
  emphasise Joans humanity (needs a lover to keep
  you warm) and her sexuality (her lover has a
  big cock)
• Eg. The description of the pierced chair together
  with the subversive picture of clergymen looking
  up the popes skirts ? comic undermining of male
  religious authority

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Critiques established authority

• Provides relief from rigid social codes
• Emphasises the communcal and the universal
• Eg. Grets base, bawdy humour focuses attention
  on food, the body, bodily functions emphasises
  the commonalities that mark our shared humanity

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Reveals and challenges the audiences assumptions
biases

• Nijos repeated references to love poetry and
  clothing strike us as faintly ludicrous
  out-of-context
• But they also invite us to rethink our own
  conventional expressions of romantic love the
  meanings we invest in clothing / fashion
• and to see them as social constructs
• Contributes to the larger pattern of questioning
  that the play engages in
• Are there any aspects of human experience that
  are not social constructs? Implications?
• LINK to issues encountered in P5?

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Reveals and challenges the audiences assumptions
biases

• In the Marlene / Jeanine interview
• Eg.
• Jeanine I thought advertising.
• Marlene People often do think advertising. I
  have got a few vacancies but I think theyre
  looking for something glossier.
• Jeanine You mean how I dress? / I can dress
  different. I
• Marlene I mean experience.
• Eg.
• Jeanine What is it they do?
• Marlene Lampshades. / This would be my first
  choice for you.
• Jeanine Just lampshades?
• Marlene Theres plenty of different kinds of
  lampshades

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Reveals and challenges the audiences assumptions
biases

• The humour is located in the gap between the
  audiences knowledge of interview protocol, and
  Jeanines naiveté
• Marlenes use of comic understatement the wry
  tone
• When we laugh at Jeanines interview faux pas, we
  do so from a position of power and knowledge that
  we share with Marlene
• As the play proceeds and Marlenes value system
  is laid open for critique, we are forced to
  consider if we too share Marlenes bourgeois
  capitalist values

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Reveals and challenges the audiences assumptions
biases

• Eg. p.64
• Angie Do you work here?
• Win How did you guess?
• Angie Because you look as if you might work here
  and youre sitting at the desk. Have you always
  worked here?
• Win No I was headhunted. That means I was
  working for another outfit like this and this lot
  came and offered me more money etc.
• Angies unsuspecting, matter-of-fact response to
  Wins sarcasm induces our uncomfortable laughter
• but also exposes our prejudices and, by contrast,
  accentuates Wins later kindness
• Provokes the audience into reconsidering our own
  values and allegiances