HAPPY 40th anniversary to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls - where the issues raised and disected remain as timeless as ever.

So why reimagine it?

Suba Das, the Everyman and Playhouse’s creative director, believes it is one of the very best British plays written in the past 100 years.

And in the programme notes it is clear this play has been a labour of love – a man directing a work that has been regarded as one of the most important pieces of feminist theatre.

Saba has worked with Caryl herself on this ambitious, stylish production.

The acclaimed writer says this is 'a socialist enquiry before a feminist one.' 

As the story unfolds that inspired journey becomes evident. 

An opening scene at a surreal dinner party in a posh restaurant may baffle many at first - especially when one of the all women guests is Pope Joan in full papal garb.

Conversations overlap, wine is drunk and passions flare. The discussion is fast and furious with some wonderful observations thrown around the table and all delivered with top-notch timing from the nine strong ensemble cast.

The scene changes to a London office. A clever transformation before your very eyes. You wonder where all the props have come from notably trapdoors and equipment cascading down from the ceiling.

LIPA graduate Ellie Light deserves top marks for her detailed set and costume design.

The first half at 90 minutes provides some sharp and funny cameos while the dialogue-strong second half at 30 minutes tends to cram in too much in such a short space of time.

Marlene, the new power-dressing managing director of Top Girls Employment Agency, is on a roll.

She is at home in the shallow glitz and glamour of 1980s London.

Yet what is the true cost of success for a woman of colour making it in a man's world? Four returning home to Liverpool 8 where the Real Thing pour out from the radio and where Thatcherism is not looked kindly upon, there’s a bitter-sweet reunion with sister Joyce. And that is where some hidden truths emerge - hard to take for both women.

As the sisters struggle to reconcile their differing realities, the next generation is waiting in the world weary wings. Will teenager Angie Cope?

There are fine individual and collective performances oin this talented cast.

Tala Gouvela (seen in the tv series McDonald and Dobbs) and Alicya Eyo who shone in Bad Girls, play the siblings Moody Marlene and jaded Joyce.

Lauren Lane as the ill-fated Pope and office worker Win also brings her characters alive with superb diction.

The '80s started out with so much hope. Here in Hope Street in 2023 - kicking off on International Women’s Day - Caryl Churchill’s play still resonate forty years on.

Verdict: Four stars. Power-FULL!

It is on until March 25. Tickets from 0151 709 4776