Cloud Nine (NHB Modern Plays)

By Caryl Churchill

A landmark play about sexual politics in colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, in which all our assumptions about sex and gender are stunningly exploded. First staged by Joint Stock and premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979, it has since been staged all over the world.
Set in both colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, Cloud Nine is about relationships - between women and men, men and men, women and women. It is about sex, work, mothers, Africa, power, children, grandmothers, politics, and money.
'Sharp comedy and a serious purpose are splendidly combined... It unlocks the imagination, liberates the mind, and leaves you weak with laughter' Time Out

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Sep 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780011080

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill is a leading playwright who has written widely for the stage, television and radio. Her stage plays include: Owners (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1972); Objections to Sex and Violence (Royal Court, 1975); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Joint Stock, 1976); Vinegar Tom (Monstrous Regiment, 1976); Traps (Royal Court, 1977); Cloud Nine (Joint Stock, 1979); Three More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly and Royal Court, 1980); Top Girls (Royal Court, 1982); Fen (Joint Stock, 1983); Softcops (RSC, 1984); A Mouthful of Birds with David Lan (Joint Stock, 1986); Serious Money (Royal Court and Wyndham's, London, then Public Theater, New York, 1987); Icecream (Royal Court, 1989); Mad Forest (Central School of Speech and Drama, then Royal Court, 1990); Lives of the Great Poisoners with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride, 1991); The Skriker (Royal National Theatre, 1994); Thyestes translated from Seneca (Royal Court, 1994); Hotel with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride, 1997); This is a Chair (Royal Court, 1997); Blue Heart (Joint Stock, 1997); Far Away (Royal Court, 2000, and Albery, London, 2001, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2002); A Number (Royal Court, 2002, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2004); A Dream Play after Strindberg (Royal National Theatre, 2005); Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Royal Court, 2006, then Public Theater, New York, 2008); Bliss, translated from Olivier Choinière (Royal Court, 2008); Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (Royal Court, 2009); Love and Information (Royal Court, 2012); Ding Dong the Wicked (Royal Court, 2012); Here We Go (National Theatre, 2015); Escaped Alone (Royal Court, 2016), Pigs and Dogs (Royal Court, 2016), Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. (Royal Court, 2019) and What If If Only (Royal Court, 2021).

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Reviews for Cloud Nine (NHB Modern Plays)

[deckla_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Poignant play, both comedy and tragedy, through the British Music Hall tradition, examining gender and roles (and stereotypes of all sorts).

[atreic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another Ardgour readthrough. I want to say 'I liked this a lot', but I'm not sure 'like' is a word I can associate with this weird ikky tale of colonialism, incest, adultery, paedophilia and orgies. It ought to be trying too hard - everything is shock factor turned up to 11. But the language is so slick, and makes you flinch and laugh and cry all at the same time, with wry dark humour and deep insight. It's a play of two halves, which while they have parallels and echos are mostly disjoint. The first half is colonial Africa, a man trying to keep the white beacon of God, Queen, Family and Respectability burning through a mess of lust, unrequited love, fights with the natives, and Christmas. The second half is the 1970s, and a sprawling mess of people bringing up children, having sex, and trying to work out who they are and what they like in the world.