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Fandango Theatre present
Cloud Nine
Cameron Slater Photography by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Jamie Honeybourne
Union Theatre
1 – 26 Sept 09
ary Couzens A review by Reuben Williams for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill is a vicious attack on old English ideas of sexual identity - a Victorian separation between right and wrong which separated people from their libidinous passions, passions which are now more widely accepted and celebrated. The play follows individuals in a family who are each under attack from these moral judgments and documents their personal forays into a territory which Victorian morality marked clearly out of bounds. The first half of the play explores the fiercely proscriptive gender roles of an exaggeratedly English family living in colonial Africa. I use the word explores because the characters are horny as a truck-stop and all fantastically keen to push the boundaries of their allotted sexual and political caste. Like an Alan Ayckbourn play laced with Viagra. The second half of the play is set in England in 1979 and follows the ghost of this repressive idea of right and wrong as it disappears into our collective subconscious. Here right and wrong is a lot more nebulous and sexual energy much less restrained. Although in a bold warp of time and space that modern physics would heavily approve of, the second act does feature many of the same characters from the first act although 25 years later in their lives. The production by Fandango is pretty true to the text and hasn’t made any drastic interpretation as far as I could see. The set is minimal and the lighting sparse but effective particularly in the opening number. Alan Gibbons as Betty in the first act is a ray of sunshine, no surprise to see that his CV lists him as a stand up comedian and a pantomime dame. The second act is more sparing with comedy though Jennifer Bryden does an excellent job of creating emotional momentum with the part of Betty as a confused divorcee coming to terms with her own independence. For me it’s a more than competent production of a strong play, although the themes covered will be familiar material to anybody versed in gender studies or feminist discourse. Ultimately I would define the show as a success in that, leaving the theatre I was still thinking about the way relationships work, how our expectations put pressures on the ones we love and the pressures we ourselves are under to conform to the roles our loved ones expect us to live up to. If a production of a play leaves you with questions that address your life outside of the theatre then that production has done more for your independent thinking than a whole series of deal or no deal. We can ask no more.
Andrew Obeney & Sophie Holland in CLOUD NINE at THE UNION THEATRE Photo by ALAN GIBBONS & Sophie Holland
0207 261 9876 http://www.uniontheatre.org/home.html Tickets: £13, £11 concessions. Credit Crunch Tuesdays – all tickets £10 Union Theatre – 204 Union Street, London.
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