At the end of 2007, CBC chose Soulpepper's production of Top Girls as one of their favourite pop culture moments of the year. The inclusion of the production on that list came to me as no surprise, for I had seen a performance during the summer, and it had floored me. Yet I was delighted to see it recognized and celebrated so. There was something so wonderfully striking about this all-female cast playing these remarkable women, portrayed as strong, decisive, but also bruised and terrifyingly exposed in the way they revealed their stories and the choices they made to become "top girls." The power of the characters' interwoven individual stories and the talent of all seven women on stage left me dumbstruck.

As Megan describes the play in an interview, "You don't know what ride you're going on. And basically, you go on a ride . . . If you surrender to this process, you have to put judgment aside because you kind of have to be open to what is being presented without forming an opinion about it yet. An opinion isn't formed until you get to the very end of the piece." After learning Soulpepper would be remounting the production the following season with the exact same cast and the same director, there was no doubt in my mind I wanted to experience that ride again. So at the beginning of the month, my friend and I managed to make our way down to Toronto for another Soulpepper visit. It was my friend's first time seeing Megan on stage and needless to say, she was beyond excited.

Arriving at the Young Centre in the afternoon for the astounding production of A Raisin in the Sun.

Needless to say that performance made us even more anxious for Top Girls in the evening. It wasn't that difficult to kill some time though. The Distillery District had new boutiques, art galleries and exhibitions to entertain us. That kept us occupied, as well as taking pictures. In the afternoon...

The street leading out of the Distillery District.

Relatively warm weather, colorful flowers, pretty bricks. Charming Distillery District as always.

Then the evening came and the pretty lights appeared:

Illuminated street leading to the Young Centre.

Lovely Distillery District at night.

The Top Girls poster outside of the Young Centre.

The phenomenal cast...

Much faster than we realized, 8 o'clock came around and we were inside the Michael Young Theatre. My friend described the play (and Megan's performance in it) as "amazing," and I must concur, with and without bias. Despite having seen this before, I came out of it with a different perspective, but one just as powerful, if not more so, than my initial one. The play's text is so rich in directions, interpretations and layers that I suspect it would take many more viewings before I would stop noticing different details, stop discovering new aspects of the characters at particular given moments. Both tragically and hilariously, the women of this play simultaneously clash and reflect each other, evade and listen to one another. The result is compelling in its mix of sacrifice, sadness, anger, love and ultimately, unanswered questions.

... of Top Girls and their director.

Talking about the relevance of Churchill's play to this day, Megan said, "It's because it's about a search for identity. Whether we're in 2007 or whether we're in 1980, if we think we're not up against society's archetypes and society's predispositions for setting a stage essentially, we're sadly mistaken, because that is the reality of what we come into and we forge our identity in that arena."

These archetypes realize themselves quickly as the first act begins, a surreal, dream-like sequence where six women sit down at a dinner table to celebrate a promotion that Megan's character just received, while a seventh woman serves them in silence. I will spare you what could only be a painful play synopsis on my part, but I just wanted to share how stunning I thought this first act was. The overlapping dialogue is fascinating and again, the cast shines. I know, I've praised the cast before, but it truly bears repeating. Each actress delivers a performance with such passionate intent and heart that I can't help but gush as this point. Except for Megan, all the other actresses play multiple roles and get to display great versatility. But with only one role, Megan's versatile talent shines no less. This could not be more obvious than in the final third act, especially in her character's confrontations with her sister (played by Kelli Fox who delivers - pardon the superlative - the most amazingly intense lines on that stage). There are such moving moments in the final lines of dialogue between Megan and Kelli and what I find captivating is their ability to convey such a poignant mix of sibling tenderness, understanding, exasperation and relentlessness...to lay bare the implicit in the explicit.

Megan after the show

I realize that the praise here might seem overly effusive, but what can I say, this is my little theatregoer experience of having seen this play three times now and feeling shaken in the best possible way each time.

After the play, Megan updated us on her future projects, which I've already reported on the site. She wrapped up the filming of a third Booky movie, Booky's Crush, and she also shot an episode of the CBC's The Border, which should air soon. She's taking a year off from Soulpepper to be a full-time mom to her two children. She acknowledged her fans and the letters they send her. She is planning on writing a little note addressing this and it will be up here on the site. For those curious about Megan's thoughts on Sullivan's upcoming Anne prequel, she mentioned that her partner, Stuart Hughes, knows Hannah Endicott-Douglas, the young actress who plays Anne, because he's worked with her on another project before. But beyond that, she said she is not involved with the movie at all and does not know anything about it. As always, Megan was kind, friendly and incredibly generous with her time, and for that, we sincerely thank her.

One last thank you is in order. To every cast member of Top Girls for taking the time to sign the cast picture for the site, thank you!

Top Girls runs for one last week, the last performances happening on Saturday, November 22. Run to see it, if you haven't already!

The whole cast kindly signed this picture for Shedding

Reported by DV
November 16, 2008