Antaeus opens 2014 season with Caryl Churchill’s modern classic “Top Girls”

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Feb. 25, 2014 - PRLog -- Antaeus. L.A.’s classical theater ensemble, kicks off its 2014 season with a fully partner-cast production of the Obie Award-winning comedy byCaryl Churchill. Politics get personal in the go-getting 1980s of Margaret Thatcher's England when Marlene, who has just been made managing director of the Top Girls Employment Agency, discovers that life above the glass ceiling is not all it's cracked up to be. An insightful commentary on bourgeois feminism, this bold and ingenious work offers one of theater's most honest portraits of what it means to be a woman in the modern world. Shoulder-pads may no longer be in fashion, but Churchill’s masterpiece continues to resonate.

Struggling to define what it means to be successful, Marlene and a sisterhood of independent women must decide what matters to them most — personal achievement or domestic fulfillment. In trying to have it all, they risk having nothing to show for their gains. Fiercely unconventional in style, Top Girls is well-known for its opening dreamlike scene featuring famous women from history and literature. The play’s unconventional structure skips back and forth through time, racing headlong to its surprising dénouement as Churchill challenges the consequences of feminism and the emotional toll it takes on individuals as well as on society.

“Top Girls is about women who make bold choices and everything they have to sacrifice to do better – and what they lose as a result,” says director Cameron Watson. “The heart of it is incredibly full, rich, poignant and harrowing. It’s very complex, with all of the actors but one taking on multiple roles, plus the extra layer of double casting. The process has been very fulfilling — these actors understand how to partner, how to help each other figure it out and find that heart.”

Performances of Top Girls take place March 13 through May 4 on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. (no matinee performance on Saturday, March 15). There will be six previews, March 6-12: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets to the Opening Night performances on March 13 and March 14 are $34, after which all tickets are $30 on Thursdays and Fridays and $34 on Saturdays and Sundays; previews are $15. The Antaeus Company is located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, CA 91601. Parking is available for $7 in the lot at 5125 Lankershim Blvd. (west side of the street), just south of Magnolia.The theater is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. For reservations and information, call 818-506-1983 or go to www.antaeus.org.