Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...Caryl Churchill’s 1982 drama “Top Girls” is widely considered one of the best British plays of the 20th century, but until this week, it was one of those modern classics that I’d never had the opportunity to see live. After attending Raven Theatre Company’s new production, directed by Lucky Stiff, I’m glad to report that it was worth the wait. With a top-notch cast and slick production design, Churchill’s clever concoction of speculative fiction, corporate satire and family drama remains sharp and timely."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...At the Top Girls Employment Agency, we get a close-up demonstration of ruthless upward mobility strategies and their cost on women’s lives. Also replete with hilarious and frustrating job interviews, worlds eventually collide, bringing Angie right to the center of an independence she admires but sees no way to enter, and whose costs she cannot begin to understand."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...Churchill’s play raises more questions than it answers and that is the stuff of really good theatre."
Around The Town Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Despite the fascinating questions being raised, the story is much too choppy and overly wordy. At 2 hours and 40 minutes with two intermissions, the performance is entirely too long, especially as it’s only in the third act that we start to figure out the purpose behind it all. By then, it’s almost too late. Churchill has created a nonlinear plot, with the elements being presented in such an unfocused manner that we start to lose the thread even before the argument is presented in full."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Caryl Churchill’s comedy classic is most famous for her unique opening scene, during which five famous historical women enjoy a contemporary meal, while discussing the various societal roles for women through the ages. But, largely due to Lucky Stiff’s smartly-produced, well-acted production, the scenes that follow are equally as exciting. This unique and polished production, kicked off by the ladies who lunch, amplifies everything that the playwright has to say about women’s rights, feminism and personal life. Lucky Stiff has made this 44-year-old play feel particularly fresh, funny and fashionably new."
Buzz Center Stage
- Recommended
"...When Raven Theatre’s artistic staff decided to include Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls in their current season, they could not have predicted that the opening would coincide with major eruptions in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Now, with the former Prince Andrew in jail and the President of the United States bloviating his innocence, this 1982 British play stings harder than ever."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Caryl Churchill writes what many might consider an intimidating scene, set in the Thatcher era. These women are all from different eras, and as the chaos builds and they all start talking over each other, it can be hard to even grasp what is happening."
Chicago On Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...To begin, Raven Theatre’s astonishing reimagining — that’s the term the company uses to describe the production, quite appropriately — of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls is, simply put, one of the most transcendent experiences I’ve had in a theatre in this or any other city. Though the play is more than 40 years old now, the cast and crew dig into the piece to make a thrilling piece of theatre that is wrenching, unsettling, and sickeningly timely."
NewCity Chicago
- Recommended
"...Although the over two-and-a-half-hour run time with two intermissions feels intimidating, the show itself is so engrossing that you may not notice the time."
