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Cloud 9
by Caryl Churchill
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Paperback
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
ISBN13: 9781559360999
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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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".
Reading the script for Caryl Churchill's 1979 play about sex and love is a special workout for the imagination. First, she asks you to imagine characters whose sexual identities and alliances shift constantly. Then she asks you to imagine that most of the characters make an impossible leap in time, from colonial Africa in the Victorian age to contemporary Britain. Lastly, she asks you to imagine some of the male characters played by women and some female characters played by men. Churchill likes to get things good and mixed up so all the audience's preconceptions about gender, romance, and "lifestyle" are scrambled, neutralized, and possibly even rebuilt. The title refers to the state of orgasmic and emotional bliss that everyone in this play seems to be striving for so desperately.
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| Brilliant Social Farce with Much Bite |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Caryl Churchill has written many strong and valuable plays, many of them about female identity and social roles, but none has supplanted Cloud 9 as her masterwork.
A biting farce of sexuality, gender, traditional familial and class roles, and pointedly, the mask of the Victorian and the Modern English persona, Cloud 9 is as funny as it is awkward, deep as it is quirky.
A true classic of the English stage. Read and if you can, see this.
Highly recommended.
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| Definitely Not One For The Kiddies |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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When you first start to read this play it will strike a few cords. If you can get past the enormous amount of sexual activities that goes on in just the first act, then you will find this play very interesting. What makes this a must read is the way the author has men playing women, women playing men and a doll for a baby. The explanation the author gives for doing this will causes a few hairs to stand up, but that is what makes the book. You won't know whether to hate the author or love her. I feel the author's talents really show in the way she transforms the characters. Betty who is Clives wife is played by a man in the act one. She is confused and incapable of making her own decisions, but by the second act she is played by a woman and she is more independent thinking on her own. Edward is another character that I find very interesting. In act one he is played by a woman because his desires are that of a woman, but by act two he start to accept his homosexuality and is then played by a man.
Cloud 9 is full of dramatic irony as well as plenty of oxymorons. If books had to come with warning label this one would definitely qualify.
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| Bridge Builder |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Caryl Churchill's dark comedic play, "Cloud Nine" is a masterpiece. Though written in 1978, its commentary on gender roles and sexuality is quite compelling to our youngest generations. With the current controversey over homosexual relationships/marriage, Cloud Nine serves as window into the frustrations and fears of gay characters. People who have a hard time identifying with alternative lifestyles would have a lot to learn from reading through this play. In a way, Churchill's play is a bridge builder between the heterosexual world and the gay minority. Cloud Nine follows the story of a family. The first act takes place on a South African plantation during the English Victorian Era, while in the second act, though the characters have only aged 20 years, the action takes place in London, England in the 1970's. Clive, the family patron, is the center of a male-oriented soceity and incourages traditional family and gender roles. For the first act, his wife Betty is played by a man, his gay son Edward is played by a woman, and his black servant is played by a white man. Immediately we learn that only Clive is satisfied with his station in life, where the other characters suffer many indignities to themselves that go unnoticed by everyone else (i.e. Edward is being molested by a friend of his father, who eventually attempts to seduce Clive as well). By the second act, time has moved forward and we watch the characters trying to adapt to an ever changing world in which parts of them is too withdrawn. Chruchill's play is clever and intense with emotion. To connect with one character is to really experience the mental frustration and the indignities that we suffer from a judgemental society. I praise Caryl Churchill for this commentary in hopes that readers will gain a sense of sympathy for such people and in turn will promote tolerance.
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| Excellent Study in Alienation |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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As far as Brechtian plays go, Churchill is a master at alienation and disidentification- characters in this play are played as the protagonist's projection of who he thinks they should be (ie: the westernized African servant is played by a white actor). Although the effect is extremely powerful onstage, particularly when it raises up complex social and ethnic issues, the different characters can be hard to keep straight on paper. This play works far better in performance than it does in print, but it remains a valuable teaching tool for both Brecht and World Theatre studies.
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| For those into theatrical arts |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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For those of you who are familiar whith Brechtian practices this is a very good source. However, if you are not into the study of performance this might not be the book for you. It is very explicit with sexual orientation and questions gender and social status.
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