Top Girls dialog

 LP 13

The overlapping dialog took a little getting used to, but I got accustomed to it rather quickly. Due to a slight misunderstanding regarding the lesson plan I ended up reading Act 1 before the first lesson. I found that keeping track of one speaker's lines in my head and mouthing out the other speaker's lines while reading helped me keep track of the dialog, by the end of Act 1 I was able to keep track of it in my head. My guess would be that the audience wasn't keen on the overlapping text initially. I read in my book, which has a preface, that many older folk walk out on the production within the first few minutes and the play was initially panned by critics. Eventually, that changed and I understand that Top Girls is well received these days. This is honestly not that unique of a trend for a piece of literature trying to do something new. I think the main question this authorial choice raises is what this manner of speaking says about the speakers and the discussion itself. The main feeling I get is the speakers are more invested in what they have to say than what anyone else is saying.