Cloud Nine

Synopsis

Cloud Nine was originally written from a series of workshops exploring sexuality, with Joint Stock in 1978. Often hilarious and extremely poignant, Cloud Nine draws a parallel between colonial and sexual oppression. Set in both Victorian Africa and 1970's London, the play shows how changing sexual behaviours have emerged and, with the onset of a more liberated society, suggests that new as yet undiscovered territories lie ahead. The characters are both joyful and mournful, the dialogue richly comic but painfully acute. The play contains adult themes and language.

Our Review:

1 November 2007

Caryl Churchill’s 1979 play Cloud Nine had its origins in a Joint Stock workshop on “sexual politics” and has acquired over the years an almost unassailable reputation as the outstanding theatre piece of its time on that subject.

Thea Sharrock’s revival at the Almeida does little to dent that reputation. What you do feel watching it after so long a time is how formally and structurally unadventurous most contemporary playwriting is – the revival of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros at the Royal Court has had a similar impact. Taking two polarised social situations – British Imperial Africa in the 1870s and a London park in 1979, though the time difference is only 25 years for the characters – Churchill brilliantly created narrative and emotional textures from a mosaic of sketch-like short scenes.

The colonial administrator, Clive (of Africa), is played by James Fleet as a brutish nincompoop whose best friend Harry Bagley ([Tobia...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 4 December 2007:

I'd hate to have the job of deciding what plays to revive - particularly ones from the last 50 years. It seems to me very difficult to predict what will still work X years later. There have been many recent successful examples at this theatre - Big White Fog and Awake and Sing this year alone - but I'm afraid, like the recent Rhinocerous and Arsonists at the Royal Court, this hasn't really stood the test of time. It's a play of its time and seeing it today it comes over as clumsy and lacking in subtlety. Probably worth a visit though if you're interested in the recent history and development of theatre - in fact, it's worth a visit to see James Fleet as a litle girl!...

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