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17 guide 12-18 Aug 2017

‘I was fascinated by

the issues of fairness

and entitlement

in the show’

looked at askance. When, in Top
of the Lake, a woman is found
wandering barefoot, screaming
for a lost child that never existed,
her husband says it’s simple:
“She’d be OK if she could just have
a baby; it would make her sane.”
It’s the same kind of insanity-
provoking desperation that
drives much of Serena Joy’s cruel
behaviour in The Handmaid’s
Tale, and that arguabl y underpins
the entire Gilead regime.
What prevents the best of
these dramas from slipping
into an insensitive stereotype
of the “barren woman” is a
perspective that’s not just female,
but a specific kind of female. In
Bodies, a new play by Vivienne
Franzmann, which finishes its
first run at London’s Royal Court
theatre today, Clem pays £22,
to have a Russian woman’s egg

implanted in an Indian woman’s

womb. The baby is very much

yearned for but Clem’s guilt

and estrangement from her

disapproving socialist dad take

their toll. Franzmann told the

Stage she wanted to tackle “the

degree to which white, middle-

class women are complicit in

the oppression of women with

less privilege and power ... As a

white, middle-class woman, that

felt confronting in a good way.”

If that statement sounds close to

something TotL’s philosopher-

pimp Puss might come up with,

that’s no accident. Campion’s

drama also seems interested

in the extent to which white

feminist guilt is useful or merely

indulgent. “I was fascinated

by the issues of fairness and

entitlement explored in the

show, and all the hypocrisies and

contrariness of the characters,”

says Englert. “I don’t know ... I’m

all questions, too! Entitlement is

havoc for all, is the only opinion

that currently comes to mind,

but that I mean generally. I don’t

have any definitive feelings on

surrogacy; I’d be out of my depth

if I tried to comment.”

Top of the Lake: China

Girl invites such deep dives,

though. And from within its

subaqueous gloom shines the

hopeful light of an extraordinary,

intergenerational collaboration.

“I do think it is our close

knowledge of each other that

created what we did with Mary,”

adds Englert. “Mum and I knew

we could do something weird,

and with love, together.” 

Top of the Lake continues Thu,

9pm, BBC2 and is available in

full on BBC iPlayer

The cradle will rock

Yvonne Strahovski

and Joseph Fiennes

in The Handmaid’s

Tale; (far left)

Chandler and

surrogate Erica

in Friends