Top Girls, Oxford Playhouse:

It is 20 years since Caryl Churchill asked in Top Girls whether Margaret Thatcher's ideas were quite the right ones on which to build a fair society. Her suspicion was . . . well, perhaps not.

Now that the Iron Lady is rusting, silenced, in the scrapyard of history, Ms Churchill's challenging, forthright play seems eerily perceptive in its analysis of Thatcherite philosophy.

First, it suggests how much of a false dawn for women the 1980s were to prove, with their political icon doing very little to assist others of her gender to join her at the top.

Second, it demonstrates how a go-get-it approach to life can only work for those equipped with the basic essentials -- education chiefly -- for the struggle. Ms Churchill, a former Oxford student, focuses her story on two characters.

In the very amusing opening scene we meet Marlene (Hettie Ladbury), a power-dressed, tough-talking businesswomen. She is first seen in action in an imaginary scene in which, having just been appointed boss of the Top Girls employment agency, she is celebrating at a drink-fuelled dinner party with notable women of history each trying to outdo each other in boasting of their exploits.

These include the butch and intellectual female pope, Joan (Joanna Scanlan), Lady Nigo (Helen Anderson), an eager-to-please concubine at the Japanese imperial court, and Isabella Bird (Elizabeth Berrington), a Victorian explorer from Edinburgh. Next, in telling contrast, we are introduced to Marlene's 16-year-old niece Angie (Pascale Burgess), already in a remedial class at school and clearly on the road to nowhere in the rural Suffolk from which her aunt has sensibly escaped.

In moments almost unbearably sad, and beautifully acted under Thea Sharrock's direction, we come to see that women such as she are never going to 'make it'. Like her mother Joyce (Helen Anderson), who ekes out a living with four charring jobs, she will remain one of life's have-nots.

The best she can hope for, says Joyce, is a job stacking shelves at Tesco. That this is so obviously true is one of the saddest aspects of this compelling drama. I first saw this joint Oxford Stage Company/Background production in Cheltenham last October, since when it has enjoyed a run in the West End.

Now that it is in the final week of its tour, I can only say how much more polished it seems, and urge everyone to see it while they have a chance.

CHRIS GRAY