Caryl Churchill‘s play, Cloud 9, premiered back in 1979. The story explores the line between gender and sexuality throughout the ages. Set a century apart (although the characters only age 25 years), Act One takes place in Victorian colonial Africa and Act Two in a London park in 1979.
There is a lot to unpack in this overly complicated but brilliant play.
Clive is a British colonial administrator who expects women to be women and men to be men. He pushes his young son Edward to stop playing with dolls and “man up”. Clive’s wife Betty depends on him and tries to be the woman he wants her to be, but she is drawn to the explorer Harry Bagley when he comes to stay. The children’s governess Ellen, who dislikes the children, is in love with Betty. Betty’s mother Maud, holds tightly to family values and tries to keep everyone together. Clive’s loyal servant Joshua is secretly sleeping with Harry and who has also been involved with nine-year-old Edward, who thinks he’s in love with him.
Clive forgives Betty’s affair, but when he discovers Harry’s relationships with Joshua and Edward, he condemns him. He tries to marry Harry off to the widow Mrs Saunders, who refuses and wants her independence. Clive then forces Harry to marry Ellen.
In Act Two, Betty has left Clive and is finding her independence. Her daughter Victoria, a baby doll in Act One, is now an adult. She is married to Martin and begins a relationship with Lin, a proud lesbian and mother to Cathy. Edward is now an adult in a gay relationship with Gerry, but Gerry cannot stay faithful and leaves. Edward discovers he is bisexual and moves in with Victoria and Lin. The three of them end the play living together in a polyamorous household.
Cloud 9 is a brave and very ambitious production. The set is lovely, with a backdrop of trees, and the stage is completely transformed for Act Two, which needs a thirty-minute interval and a full clearance of the auditorium.
The gender-bending gets plenty of laughs (although I’m not sure how much of that is laughing at the novelty of seeing a man dressed as a woman and a woman playing a young boy), but it’s perfect for showing how fluid gender and sexuality are.
It is brilliantly funny, although a little more blue in language than you may expect from a National Theatre play. This was evident in the critic sitting next to me, who tutted at some of the language and then proceeded to snore through the rest of Act One.
Stuart Thompson gives a stunning performance in both acts – as Betty in Act One and Edward in Act Two. It is Sam Troughton though, who steals the show in Act Two as toddler Cathy. It is a brilliant comedy performance and feels like this is a role he has been living to play.
Star of BBC’s Ghosts, Charlotte Ritchie is the star pull in this show and I was very excited to see her on stage. She probably has the least interesting of parts to play but does a good job, playing a character much like the other roles I have seen her in.
Unfortunately, the story of grown men in relationships with underage children is quite the topic of conversation right now, with stories of men using their power and celebrity to groom and abuse much younger people.
This play was written nearly fifty years ago, yet it shows we’ve come no further in calling out what’s wrong in the world. Instead, we fixate on things that really don’t matter, like which pronouns and which toilet people want to use. Perhaps we should focus on educating the ignorant and calling out those who do wrong in plain sight, while nobody does anything to stop it.
I really enjoyed Cloud 9 but I left the theatre baffled as to exactly what had happened as there was so much going on in the story. I loved it but I wish it could have been simpler.
★★★★
Reviewed by West End Wilma
Cloud 9 is playing in the Lyttelton at the National Theatre until 13 January 2027
Accessible Performances
Captioned Performances
Friday 11 December – 7.30pm
Monday 21 December – 7.30pm
Saturday 9 January – 2.30pm
BSL Interpreted Performance
Friday 4 December – 7.30pm
Audio described Performances
Saturday 28 November – 2.30pm
Tuesday 12 January – 7.30pm
Relaxed performance
Monday 14 December – 7.30pm
WHAT DID YOU THINK? LEAVE A SHORT REVIEW
READER REVIEWS
There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.
