When was cloud 9 written

This is true of colonial Africa, setting for act one, where one of the principle characters, Clive , treats his wife and the natives with the same type of draconian authority. The play compares colonial and sexual oppression and finds them to be remarkably similar; even in act two, which is set in , Clive struggles to adjust to feminism because he is used to being in complete control.

Like many of Churchill's plays, Cloud 9 was written for the Joint Stock Theater Group,whose method of producing a play entailed bringing together the writer, producer and company actors for a workshop where they research and discuss their experiences of sexual politics, stereotypes and gender reversal. Although the characters and situations were not written in these sessions, Caryl Churchill credits them with hugely influencing the characters and thrir development.

During that time I felt isolated. I had small children and was having miscarriages. It was an extremely solitary life. Into [the play] went for the first time a lot of things that had been building up in me over a long time, political attitudes as well as personal ones. The next year the feminist company, Monstrous Regiment, commissioned Churchill to write a play about witches.

The result was Vinegar Tom, set in England in the 17th century. The usual production method of Joint Stock was for the writer, director, and actors to spend three to four weeks in a workshop researching a subject, followed by the writer completing the play and six weeks of rehearsal and revisions before performances. Gathering insights from these sessions Churchill then wrote the play. When I thought of the colonial setting the whole thing fell quite quickly into place.

Though no character is based on anyone in the company, the play draws deeply on our experiences, and would not have been written without the workshop. This is my family. Though far from home We serve the Queen wherever we may roam I am father to the natives here, And father to my family so dear.

Betty, who longs to experience the world of adventure open only to men, is played by a man; Joshua, who longs to be white, is played by a Caucasian actor; Edward, whose inclinations are conventionally attributed to females and repressed in males, is played by a woman. Each therefore reflects the race and gender of his or her aspiration and inner nature.

The casting, moreover, challenges the artificially restrictive demarcation of gender and power roles that the play explores generally. As the act proceeds the conflict between enforced roles and actual identities causes both the family and the colonial outpost to fall apart at the seams.

As the act concludes Clive proposes the wedding toast:. Edit that was written like a month and a half after I read the book: Downgraded to 4 stars because it wasn't reeeeally 5 stars worthy. Mar 10, Samuel Zucca rated it really liked it Shelves: year-one-plays. Well this play was absolutely off the wall. After really hating Top Girls I was so pleased at how enjoyable this was. It's quite dizzying with it's race and gender swaps, time jumps from colonial Africa to s London, and everyone seeming to be sleeping with everyone else.

A lot of the themes in the play are quite dark, and troubling and immediate, but that doesn't stop it from being really fun. When I read this in my head it almost seemed like a musical, as most scenes do have a song involve Well this play was absolutely off the wall. When I read this in my head it almost seemed like a musical, as most scenes do have a song involved. Then there's the dialogue where every character seems to say exactly what they are thinking, with no subtext involved at all.

At least for me, that made it really funny. Particularly with Clive and Martin in the first and then second acts of the play, so seem to be the straight males of the ensemble. Clive's horror at his friend Harry's advances, as being 'a betrayal of the Queen' and then Martin's description of his novel 'about women from the women's point of view' are just a few examples of the play's cutting humour.

I found it a lot more digestible than Top Girls especially with the play's dialogue. At times characters do seem to talk at each other rather than with each other, but this is kept to a minimum, and there's thankfully no instances of the brain-hurting overlapping dialogue. I suppose only a few issues I'd have with Cloud Nine are its themes, and I suppose I'm thinking about what it's actually saying, or trying to say. Sure it's incredibly radical for , and it explores the very complicated relationships of its queer characters very seriously.

There still seems to be an element of fear in its tone however, and I don't know if that's something reflecting its audiences attitudes or something Churchill herself is trying to warn.

As if in wake of the sexual revolution, same-sex relationships have become much less taboo, but then at the same time the floodgates are open to incest and pedophilia? It's quite a dangerous line to walk, especially when all these different sexualities are all mingling together in the same play. Really I don't know if the play is a liberal one, or secretly conservative. Maybe I'm trying too hard to untangle all of it, Churchill just puts it all in there for us to marvel at.

Boy o' boy! I had never thought of this as a very controversial play. However, when you're watching it, it's played by a grown woman The style of the first act is also so silly and fun that much of the oppression and abuse is mitigated that way. Well, they didn't get full points for giving up and giving in to their biases, but I sure learned a lot View 2 comments. Jul 21, Holly Baker rated it really liked it. I was really impressed with this until the ending, what a non-ending. Everything's very on the nose in this both with the blunt dialogue between the characters and the social commentary stuff, but that's what makes it so funny.

I really want to see it performed now because I bet its even funnier when you can see the gender bender roles instead of just imagine it because it's quite hard to rememver which characters are being cross played so as to speak. Apr 24, Laala Kashef Alghata rated it really liked it. I love this play.

It has two acts, one set in Victorian times in a British colony in Africa. Act Two is in London in — a hundred years have passed, but for the characters it is twenty-five years later.

Joshua, their black servant is played by a white to represent him not respecting himself as a black man and modeling himself after what Clive wants him to be. In Act Two, the only character played by someone not of their gender is a child, Cathy, who is played by a man. It sounds complex, and it is, but it makes for a great reading. I really, really wish I could see this in performance though because there are so many intricacies created by doubling the actors and switching genders with actor-character that could only come out properly in performance.

Churchill discusses sexual politics in an interesting way, looking at women who are willing to be subordinate vs those who are not, she plays with the sexuality of the characters and almost has homosexuality become a lifestyle rather than something one is born with, as all the main characters experiment with what they want their sexual life to encompass.

She ends the play with some resolution but no clear sexual resolution and thus I deduce that she is aware that for some sexuality has no clear frontiers. View 1 comment. Churchill really is so good at what she does. The fact that this play premiered in is absolutely surreal to me. It feels so ahead of its time. It feels so revolutionary. Even reading it now, it feels revolutionary. The way Churchill writes about sex and women is so honest that it hits you in the face. There is nothing sugarcoated.

They are honest characters that exist in such a creative way that I find myself confused and in awe of the complexity that is demonstrated. There is nothing simple Churchill really is so good at what she does.

There is nothing simple about this, but, at the same time, the whole thing is simple. The twists at the end of each act remind me of a Black Mirror episode in that they are unexpected and earth shattering. This was all so geniusly crafted. I truly truly adored this work. Thank you Churchill. Women playwrights never cease to amaze me.

You are no exception. Oct 22, Charley Rose rated it it was amazing. This was a play I had to read for my tutorial at University and I'm really glad that it was chosen. It was uncomfortable in a way that a play about sexual politics should be, and it was both thought provoking and crudely funny as well. I liked the references to other pieces of literature and also songs from around the time, Tommy's Gun!

The characters, although many of them deliberately archetypal of the people they were supposed to represent in soci This was a play I had to read for my tutorial at University and I'm really glad that it was chosen. The characters, although many of them deliberately archetypal of the people they were supposed to represent in society, were easy to form relationships with. I hated at least three of them by the end of the play and found almost all of them very questionable.

Although reading it for pleasure is something I do recommend, I look forward to at some point getting the chance to see it performed on stage as it is supposed to be performed by only seven people, allowing for certain characters to be doubled up, reminding me of my Sophocles studies. This would make for some interesting combinations of characters. Overall, my second favourite play that I have read after the Crucible.

Apr 01, Adrian rated it it was amazing Shelves: theater. Love and acceptance of oneself and of others is a theme at the heart of this amazing British play that revolutionized English theater. As the censorship of the theater was stripped away, Churchill took the opportunity to present a play that was overtly frank in its depiction and discussion of sex, sexuality, and gender roles in the 's.

Homosexuality, gender bending, adultery, violence, racism, and graphic language all take center stage in a play that will leave you both hysterical with laugh Love and acceptance of oneself and of others is a theme at the heart of this amazing British play that revolutionized English theater.

Homosexuality, gender bending, adultery, violence, racism, and graphic language all take center stage in a play that will leave you both hysterical with laughter and contemplative about the importance of love, acceptance, and family in the face of social norms and expectations.

Far too adult to be taught in grade school, Cloud 9 is, nevertheless, a play that should be read by everyone. Aug 27, Jamie rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in , drama. Hilarious and provocative meditation on identity, sexism, colonialism, sexuality and theatricality. The play's first act is set in colonial Africa, a Victorian-era parallelism?

Act two transplants the same figures into contemporary England well, contemporary to the play's publication in the end of the 70s and questions whether we read this transition between Victorianism and 'modern' sexual polit Hilarious and provocative meditation on identity, sexism, colonialism, sexuality and theatricality.

The first act is set in Victorian Africa where men protect Queen and country while the women bring up the family, lie back and think of England. The liberated s provides the setting for the second half, But still some are bound by old conventions. Each character suffers mental torture, haunted by ghosts of the past, in a struggle to establish emotional and sexual freedom.

The play demanded and got a high standard of acting and it was a complete joy to see a group in complete control of difficult material, enjoying themselves, and ensuring the audience were informed as well as entertained. I recommend you take a trip to 'Cloud Nine' but the language and material are not suitable for children.

The production continues until next Friday, except Sunday and Monday.