Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill
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| Almeida Theatre production (2007) |
Premiere: Dartington College of Arts (14 February 1979)
Published by Methuen in Plays: One
Caryl Churchill had been writing for over twenty years by the time Cloud Nine premiered, but it was this play that brought her international acclaim and indeed continues to be performed. It was most recently seen at the Almeida Theatre, directed by Thea Sharrock.
The play is a study of sexual politics, beginning in the patriarchal, strictly repressive Victorian colonial Africa, and then wrenching the characters rapidly into post-sexual revolution London in 1979. The central characters are a family; husband and wife Clive and Betty, their two children Edward and Victoria, and grandmother Maud.
Churchill's introduction to the script is illumating about the process used to create the piece. It was developed in collaboration with director Max Stafford-Clark and the Joint Stock Theatre Group in three weeks of exploratory workshops on sexual politics initially, before Churchill spent some time writing the script, and then a final rehearsal process leading to production. The production was also seen in London at the Royal Court following a tour.
Cloud Nine's first act is dominated by the rules of colonial administrator and patriarch Clive, who forces any identities that would shame his beloved England into repression. The act is a wickedly funny satire of Victorian family values, with Clive insisting that women are "dark like this continent, mysterious" and affairs and indiscretion rife beneath the facade of a content nuclear family.
Churchill plays with form joyously. She uses song and verse freely, creating a heightened theatrical world particularly in the first act. The scenes are episodic, with rapid successions of vignettes between different characters. She utilises extreme imagery and language to great effect. Some of the characters lapse into direct address, particularly in celebration of newly accessible sexual practises in the second act.
"I live for Clive. The whole aim of my life / Is to be what he looks for in a wife. / I am a man's creation as you see, / And what men want is what I want to be." Betty
Churchill presents a web of gender subversion, with Betty played by a man and their son Edward played by a woman, while their daughter Victoria is not even autonomic but a manipulated dummy. This not only ensures hilarity, but also communicates a much deeper thread that is central to Churchill's play. Betty introduces herself; "I am a man's creation as you see, / And what men want is what I want to be." She does not value herself as a woman - she can only find value in achieving what Clive wants of her. She plays the role of the quiet domestic angel, but with the arrival of Clive's romantic explorer friend, Harry, her deep dissatisfaction is made clear. Edward in the first act shows how masculinity is a learned set of behaviours, rather than something innate. This is heightened by the cross-gender casting, with both Clive and Betty chastising Edward whenever he is found acting like a "sissy", epitomised by playing with his sister's doll.
The family have a black servant, Joshua, played by a white actor. This cross-racial casting effectively makes the internal battle manifest - Joshua declares "My skin is black but oh my soul is white. / I hate my tribe. My master is my light."; he does not identify with his own race or people, dominated by colonial values.
Unfortunately, though, the uncomfortable side effect of this is that while certain themes are nicely highlighted, others are compromised. Churchill plays it safe with some of the more difficult (at least for the time of writing) gender politics. Harry, the explorer, has a relationship with Edward. This is tempered by the fact that Edward is played by a woman, so this gay relationship becomes heteronormative and inoffensive. This waters down the effect of what is actually on the page, which could be a very challenging scenario for audiences. Clive's revulsion at Harry's homosexuality, and Betty's blindness to the governess' sexuality, are gratifyingly laughable, though.
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| Almeida Theatre production (2007) |
Act two is set in a London park in 1979, but for the characters only 25 years have passed. Betty leaves Clive, Edward has taken a lover who enjoys cruising, Victoria has a daughter of her own and falls in love with Lin, a mother herself, as her traditional marriage collapses. The act is lead by women and gays, as the sexual revolution has released them from some of the old repressions.
This cleverly illustrates having to reconcile one's liberated present with one's past. This is surely true for all those who lived through the sexual liberation of the 1960s and '70s, and indeed still true for all those who must fight to escape the repression of traditional or conservative homes. Churchill briefly brings characters back from act one which otherwise do not appear, like lingering ghosts reminding the characters of how they were brought up, of what their old values were which they have now reviled against. Clive appears, for instance, not long after Betty (now played by a woman) has paid tribute to masturbation, reminding her "You are not that sort of woman, Betty. I can't believe you are." He has said these words before to her, in response to her confession of dissatisfaction in act one. Churchill may be asking 'this sexual revolution is all well and good, but can we ever be free of our past?' This is a crucial question for the generations living through these changes. Self-hatred and repression is, ultimately, the most powerful of all forms. How do those people find happiness, or is happiness only to truly be found in following generations?
There is something inconclusive about this play. While Churchill observes the changes that have happened, she doesn't encourage any sort of commentary on it. She avoids what are the really tough questions. Is the apparent death of the nuclear family, with traditional marriages falling apart everywhere you look, really for the best? Is hedonistic sex as satisfying as relationships, and are polygamous relationships as stable as monogamous relationships? What are the implications of same-sex parenting? Although I would of course argue that gay couples can be just as effective parents, it is certainly different - and in the culture of 1979 that sort of discussion is surely even more important. There is a risk that these changes are taken so lightly that they seem not seismic and fought for but part of a natural progression. This may inadvertently belittle the changes that Churchill might indeed be attempting to celebrate.
The overriding message from Churchill's play, underlined by mentions of the British post-colonial oppression of Northern Ireland in act two, is that there is indeed an overpowering link between political oppression and sexual oppression. This illuminates the inextricable link between the political with the personal in a sophisticated manner, as Sarah Kane would later do in Blasted.
Churchill's play is undoubtedly problematic and doesn't present any final resolution for the characters. This is perhaps what has made the play endure for over thirty years; it is still just as relatable for audiences across the world. And Churchill's wit and dialogue, as ever, are second-to-none. Cloud Nine is a fascinating experiment even if some of Churchill's more recent works are a little more refined.
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| Thea Sharrock's production at the Almeida Theatre (2007) |
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