by Michele Markarian
“Cloud Nine”, by Caryl Churchill. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Presented by The Nora Theatre Company, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through June 30.
Given our current climate of the contraction/expansion of sexuality and all of its permutations, the decision of The Nora Theatre Company to produce Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud Nine” is an apt and timely one. Churchill presents us with sexuality in all of its extremes, often hilariously, sometimes disturbingly. Lee Mikeska Gardner’s excellent direction and the stellar acting by the seven-member cast make this an unforgettable theater-going experience.
The play begins during Victoria’s reign in British colonial Africa, where Clive (Stephanie Clayman) is living with his family and black houseboy, Joshua (Marge Dunn). “We are not in this country to enjoy ourselves”, Clive reminds his wife, Betty (Joshua Wolf Coleman) sternly. It’s more of a message for Betty, as Clive is enjoying himself a lot by having a sexual relationship with a neighbor, Mrs. Saunders (Aislinn Brophy). Poor Betty, meanwhile, has a massive and chaste Victorian crush on family friend Harry Bagley (Alexander Platt), who does nothing more than pine and kiss her on the lips. This is enough to send Clive into an uproar, threatening his previously thought of virtuous wife with banishment. Unbeknownst to anyone, Harry is enjoying the sexual pleasures of Clive’s and Betty’s pre-adolescent son, Edward (Sophorl Ngin). When Harry makes a tentative pass at Clive, Clive insists that he marry the children’s closeted lesbian governess, Ellen (Aislinn Brophy) in a move that pleases neither participant. (“I suppose getting married won’t be any worse than killing myself,” muses Harry, while Betty comforts Ellen with, “Dear Ellen, you don’t get married to enjoy yourself”.) Meanwhile, much to Clive’s consternation and great disgust, Edward has taken to carrying around his baby sister’s doll.
It’s a buttoned down scenario, with all of the characters wanting sex with people that society and its constraints deem inappropriate. It is also very, very funny, thanks to Gardner’s brisk direction and the cast’s wonderful grasp of Churchill’s dialog (“Not very chatty tonight, are we?” says a straight-faced Clive to the doll that plays his daughter, Victoria). The cross-casting manages to illuminate the gender differences in a way that heightens them. Clayman’s Clive is hyper masculine; Wolf Coleman’s Betty is hyper feminine. Dunn’s Joshua is a study in creepy subservience and subtext; you can feel the resentment seething behind her perfectly masked face of watchful repose. Rounding out the group is Betty’s mother, Maud (Kody Grassett) whose droll delivery, along with a constant expression of anxiety and distaste, is hilarious.
Act II begins in a playground in 20th century England at a time when the IRA is active, much to the concern of the characters. Although it is actually a hundred years later, in the playwright’s mind – and ours – it is a mere twenty-five. Betty (Stephanie Clayman) is now a fully realized woman, not a man’s fantasy of one, and divorced from Clive. Her daughter Victoria (Sophorl Ngin), is unhappily married to Martin (Joshua Wolf Coleman) and beginning an affair with Lin (Marge Dunn). Edward (Alexander Platt) is gay and in a thankless relationship with Gerry (Kody Grassett) but also in some kind of menage a trois with Lin and his sister (at this point in the play, I emitted a kind of “Ewww” sound. Really). Betty learns of her son’s homosexuality through Gerry, and is accepting (the fact that her two kids are making out doesn’t seem to faze her in the least. Ewww). But everybody is open and loving and kosher, which, when the play was written in 1979, was a pretty powerful message.
It still is, but for me, the second half the play kind of falls apart. The acting and direction are as crisp as ever, but the writing isn’t as strong or cohesive or even funny. The characters feel more amorphous – I am not sure what matters to them, other than their freedom to express their sexual intent without inhibition. Yet it’s rare that you find a more uniformly talented grouping of actors than this, and for that reason, Cloud 9 is worth a visit. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.centralsquaretheater.org/shows/cloud-9/
