Cloud 9

Cloud 9 not only marked the theatrical breakthrough of preeminent British playwright Caryl Churchill, but proved a milestone in the portrayal of sexual liberation and feminism. "A playwright of genuine audacity and assurance, able to use her considerable wit and intelligence in ways at once unusual, resonant and dramatically riveting."—Benedict Nightingale

Cloud Nine is an inventive, surrealistic and entertaining look at sexual repression and sexual role conditioning.

The first act takes placei n Victorian Africa, suggeting the parallel between colonial and sexual repression. Clive, the whtie man, imposes his

ideals on his family and the natives. Betty, his wife, is played by a man because she wants to be what men want her to be; and Joshua, their black servant, is played by a white man because he wants to be what whites want him to be.

The second act is set in London in 1979--in the

changing sexuality of our own time. The characters, who have ages only twenty-five years, have become more real to themselves, men suffer as well as women, and our identities are warped by conforming to "unnatural norms".

tricks....Miss Churchill, as you might gather is one deft writer (Frank Rich, The New York Times)

dipped in ice water (Walter Kerr, The New York Times)

Caryl Churchill (1938-) is probably the most respected woman dramatist in the English-speaking world. She is the author of some twenty plays including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Serious Money, The Skriker, Blue Heart, Far Away and A Number, seen and admired all over the world. CARYL CHURCHILL's plays include "Cloud Nine" (revived in 2007 to huge acclaim at the Almeida, London), "Top Girls", "Serious Money", "The Skriker", "Blue Heart", "Far Away" and "A Number". Most are published by NHB.