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Cloud Nine
Cloud Nine | Caryl Churchill
1 post | 11 read | 1 to read
Comedy / Casting: 4m, 3f w/doubling / Scenery: 2 exteriors The time-shifting comedy by the author of Top Girls created a sensation Off-Broadway directed by Tommy Tune. Here we are in 1880 darkest but British Africa as portrayed in old movies, plays and novels. Only with a difference. Both 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 really is 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. "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
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TiminCalifornia
Cloud 9 (Tcg) | Caryl Churchill
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Panpan

A play. Almost bailed on this one during Act One. It‘s really short, though, so I persevered. Act Two was a big improvement. Written in the late ‘70s it explores feminism, sexuality and gender. Colonialism is touched on. I was bored. Other books, plays, movies have done better with these topics since then. Interesting historical artifact maybe still suitable for college classes. #doublespin for February. Awaiting arrival of my #bookspin read.

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 4y
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