Cloud Nine
- Full Length Play, Comedy, Victorian (British and American), Contemporary, 1980s
- 4M, 3F
- ISBN: 9780573016684
Written for Joint Stock, this theatre company's workshop for the play was 'sexual politics', thus giving Caryl Churchill the idea for her parallel between colonial and sexual oppression.
Description
- Full Length Play
- Comedy
- Time Period: Victorian (British and American), Contemporary, 1980s
- Target Audience: Adult
- Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
Both a parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes, especially towards sex. There is Clive, a British functionary, his wife Betty (played by a man), their daughter Victoria (a rag doll), Clive's friend Harry an explorer, Mrs. Saunders who runs about dressed in a riding habit, Clive's son Edward who still plays with dolls and is played by a woman, and Joshua a native servant who knows exactly what is really going on.
What's really going on is a marvelous send up and a non-stop round robin of sexual liaisons. All this time the natives are restless in the background. The second act shifts to London in 1980 except for the surviving characters it is only twenty five years later and all those repressed sexual longings have evaporated along with the Empire.
REVIEWS:
"Intelligent, inventive and funny."
The New York Times
"I really don't know when I've had more fun. It blends farce, pathos into a work of total theatre."
New York Daily News
Characters
- Casting: 4M, 3F
Act 1
CLIVE - a colonial administrator
BETTY - his wife, played by a man
JOSHUA - his black servant, played by a white
EDWARD - his son, played by a woman
VICTORIA - his daughter, a dummy
MAUD - his mother-in-law
ELLEN - Edward's governess
HARRY BAGLEY - an explorer
MRS. SAUNDERS - a widow (played by the same actress who plays Ellen)
Act 2
BETTY - now played by a woman (normally the same actress who plays Edward)
EDWARD - her son, now played by a man (normally the same actor who plays Betty)
VICTORIA - her daughter (normally played by the same actor who plays Maud)
MARTIN - Victoria's husband (normally played by the same actor who plays Harry)
LIN - a lesbian single mother (normally played by the same actress who plays Ellen/Mrs. Saunders)
CATHY - Lin's daughter, age 5, played by a man (normally the same actor who plays Clive)
GERRY - Edward's lover (normally played by the same actor who plays Joshua)
Available Material
| Name | Price |
|---|---|
|
Cloud Nine Script
Order Now
Written for Joint Stock, this theatre company's workshop for the play was 'sexual politics', thus giving Caryl Churchill the idea for her parallel between colonial and sexual oppression. Act I takes place in Victorian Africa, whilst Act II is set in modern London. Much interplay is made of gender and colour: for example, Clive, the white settler, has a black servant, Joshua, who is played by a white because he wan's to be what the whites want him to be. Hilarious and thought-provoking. |
$24.95 |
