This wasn't going to be the last time that the Iron Lady induced a collective rush for the sick bucket across the nation.

But this bizarre statement also disproved those who mistakenly thought she had any interest in improving the lives of working women

Top Girls is a pertinent reminder that Tory individualism and the interests of feminism can never be reconciled.

Caryl Churchill's 1982 play opens with a familiar dinner party scene, where the role of fathers is discussed even though men remain significantly absent throughout.

The unfamiliar guests include the 19th-century explorer Isabella Bird, a figure from medieval Japanese history Lady Nijo and the only ever female pope, Joan.

They talk about their struggles but also their achievements in a poignant scene where laughter and tears coexist, often indistinguishably.

Churchill wants us to know that these historically forgotten women would never have been accredited by Thatcher when becoming prime minister.

Suranne Jones plays Marlene in this welcome revival, whose story runs the whole way through the play and binds elements of fantasy with early 1980s realism.

The incoming managing director of Top Girls employment agency, she is aptly portrayed, sympathetically and satirically, in Jones's performance. This combination shouldn't work, but the fact that it does shows one of the many reasons why the play is rightfully a classic of modern theatre.

Jones rises to the challenges of the role and when Marlene's estranged daughter Angie (Olivia Poulet) turns up to her City office in wellies she is met with the hard-nosed disinterest of someone who has sacrificed their family for their career.

But the cracks in this front are difficult to hide. A flashback to the year before reveals a more vulnerable Marlene unable to connect to the family she has left behind for the City.

Joyce, played by Stella Gonet, is her jaded sister. Having brought up Angie as her own, she is the bitter counterweight to Marlene's success.

The structure of Top Girls might be disjointed, but the anti-capitalist message manages to be both consistent and undogmatic.

Like all the other women characters, those who attend the employment agency must accept the inhumanity of a ruthless "jobs market" where unemployment is high and social conscience low.

Unfortunately their depiction sometimes slips into retro caricature, glossing over some of the disturbing parallels with today.

This is however the only real criticism which can be directed at Max Stafford-Clark's timely production, with its versatile all-female cast.

It is easy to see why this exploration of sexual, political and class politics has made a successful transfer from Chichester Theatre here to Trafalgar Studios. With Downing Street just yards away, Cameron et al would do well to make the short walk to see this savage yet subtle critique of Thatcherism.

Runs until October 29. Box office: (020) 7492-1532.