On Cloud Nine

Male characters played by women, female characters played by men, a dutiful matron who morphs into a vulnerable gay man, a patriarchal husband who becomes a mischievous five-year-old girl.

In November, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present an all-new production of Cloud Nine, the classic, gender-bending satire of colonial and sexual conquest by London playwright Caryl Churchill.

Performances begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12 and 13, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Performances continue the following weekend, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19 and 20, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $8 for students, senior citizens and Washington University faculty and staff.

The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in Room 208, Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Cloud Nine boasts one of the most convoluted dramatic structures in contemporary theater, with seven actors doubling and even tripling roles to portray 16 characters. The timeline jumps more than a 100 years, from the late 19th century to the present, though characters age only 25 years. In addition, director Andrea Urice, senior artist-in-residence, has shifted the locales from colonial Africa and 1970s London to 1880s Arizona and modern day New York City.

“I wanted to highlight the play’s political overtones, particularly since our run comes closely after an election,” Urice explained. “As Americans, I think that we’re sometimes able to distance ourselves from the history of colonialism, thinking ‘those were different times and different countries.’ But we have our own issues, particularly regarding treatment of Native Americans.”

Act I, set near the end of the Indian Wars, exposes the hilariously lurid sex lives of a rigid, patriarchal family. Clive (senior Adam Rubin), a government administrator, is conducting a steamy affair with the widow Saunders (graduate student Louise Edwards), while his submissive wife, Betty (senior John Stadler), longs for Clive’s friend, the dashing explorer Harry (senior Brian Stojak).

Unbeknownst to either of them, Harry is sleeping with Joshua (freshman Lee Osorio), the couple’s Native American servant. Adding to the confusion, Clive and Betty’s governess, Ellen (who yearns for Betty), is also played by Louise Edwards. Rounding out the cast are senior Christena Doggrell as Edward, the couple’s son, and senior Molly Martin as Maud, Betty’s mother. Victoria, the couple’s daughter, is portrayed by a doll.

In Act II, Betty (now played by Edwards) has left Clive and struck-out on her own, while Edward (now played by Stadler) is a gay gardener and Victoria (now played by Doggrell) has embarked on a relationship with Lin (Martin). Meanwhile, Rubin, who previously played Clive, is now both Cathy, Lin’s precocious daughter, and the Soldier, while Osorio, who formerly played Joshua, appears as Gerry, Edward’s lover, and Stojak, who played Harry, is now Martin, Victoria’s new-age husband.

“Act I is very funny, farcical and swift,” Urice explains. “Act II is a bit more dramatic, more textured and has a more leisurely pace. The trick is to make these two halves, which can seem very different, fit together.”

“The play contains some very frank discussion of sexuality, including gay sexuality, and Churchill makes a lot of provocative points about gender and race,” Urice added. For example, in addition to the gender-bending casting, the playwright specifies that Joshua, a person of color, be played by a white actor.

“Boundaries of time, boundaries of gender, boundaries of sexuality — all are blurred by the very structure of the play,” Urice concluded. ” Or rather, it both blurs them and calls attention to them.”

Set design is by senior Emily Grosland. Costumes are by Bonnie Kruger, senior artist-in-residence, with lighting by David Vogel, artist-in-residence. Original music is by junior Matt Kitces and local musician Joe Dreyer.

Caryl Churchill

Widely considered one of England’s finest contemporary dramatists, Churchill was born in London in 1938 but raised largely in Montreal, Canada. In 1960, she graduated with a degree in English from Oxford University, where she had written several works for student drama groups, and shortly thereafter began writing radio plays for the BBC.

Churchill’s first stage play, Owners, debuted in 1972 and in 1974-75 she served as resident dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre. Soon after, she began collaborating with the theater collectives Monstrous Regiment and the Joint Stock Theatre Group, whose improvisational ethic and extensive work-shopping proved lasting influences on her work.

Cloud Nine, the first of Churchill’s works to receive widespread notice, was written for Joint Stock and debuted in February 1979 at the Dartington College of Arts. The show premiered off-Broadway in 1981, earning Churchill her first Obie Award for playwriting. Subsequent plays have ranged from such historical works as Vinegar Tom (1976) and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976), both set in 17th century England, to a new translation of Seneca’s Thyestes (2001) and topical plays like Mad Forest (1990), set after the 1989 overthrow of Romanian dictator Ceausescu. Churchill’s A Number (2002), which addresses human cloning, will have its American premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop in mid-November, in a production starring Sam Shepard.

Additional photos