Kelsey Rogers Design
Build it, Paint it, Cloth it, Close it.
Top Girls
Costume Design, Alumni Teaching Artist
Cornish College of the Arts
Marlene celebrates her new position as MD of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five oddly assorted women from centuries past. There’s Isabella Bird the British traveller and writer from the 19th-century; Lady Nijo the 13th-century Japanese concubine to Emperor Go-Fukakusa; and Dull Gret the woman depicted in a 16th-century painting by Pieter Bruegel, shown to be leading an army of women to pillage Hell. They’re joined by Pope Joan who, as legend has it, disguised herself as a man during the 9th century to rise through the ranks of the Vatican; and Patient Griselda, a character from European folklore who was known for her stoicism and obedience.
The audience is later transported to the Top Girls employment agency to see how Marlene operates at work – in a cut-throat male-dominated industry. We soon discover the sacrifices she has had to make to get to where she is. We meet her sister and see that while both women were raised in the same household, their lives have turned out very differently – as have their outlooks on the world and the opportunities they have within it.
