There are strands of theatre which are conscious of the world they play in.

Some may argue that all theatre always reflects the wider world or at least the wider world reflects back on the theatre.

On occasion, I wonder how close the world pays attention. In a week where the National Theatre is criticised for its lack of female playwrights, I’m unsure how much the outside world observes.

That’s an  argument - all the more - for our national theatres to pay attention to the world and tell us the truths we are wilfully blind too.

Top Girls then forcefully reminds us. Reminds us of the subjugated role of women in history. Reminds us of the socio-political clash that brought Thatcher’s 80s and one woman’s cry “I don’t believe in class.” And how that worship of the individual has now played out.

That an all female cast written in a politics of over 30 years ago still has fresh resonance in an age of MeToo, identity wars and a politics which echoes and rhymes and seems to again reflect today.

A structure that spans dinner with almost mythical historical women to a kitchen sink in the early 1980s.

Our best theatre can leave you thinking or being something different at the end to at the beginning.