Cloud 9 Analysis

The setting of this play changes dramatically between Acts 1 and 2, taking us from Colonial British Africa during the Victorian Era to modern-day England. Okay, so maybe not totally modern-day, but...

The closest thing you'll find to a narrator comes in the form of the chants and songs that Churchill peppers throughout this play, because in these moments we have characters talking directly to th...

On the surface, this play is a straight-up comedy. There are tons of laughs to be had in the way these characters all run around having sex with random people. And certainly Cloud 9 has a comedy's...

From the moment you see a bunch of men dressed as women and women dressed as men step onto the stage, you realize that you're in for a pretty playful comedy. But what you might not realize (at leas...

You're going to see a lot of polite British language in the first act of this play, like when Clive opens the play by saying, "Ye who the earth's wide corners, from veldt to prairie, roam" (1.1.4-5...

The title Cloud 9 comes from the old expression "on cloud nine," which refers to a place of total mental fulfillment and happiness. You might be on cloud nine if you just won the lottery, got engag...

At the end of Cloud 9, Betty is sitting on a park bench. Clive (who's been MIA since Act 1) shows up and tells Betty that she's "not that sort of woman" (2.4.273), meaning that Betty is not the sor...

Yeah, this play is pretty experimental when it comes to some of its techniques and themes. When it comes to basic language and plot, though, you shouldn't have much trouble following the action. Su...

All in the FamilyCaryl Churchill knows how to write herself a solid, structured play. When it comes to exposition, she just does things the old-fashioned way and gets everyone onstage to sing about...

It's not easy to find a clear category for what Churchill is doing with Cloud 9, because the project of this play is to explode normal categories. This play rails against the oppression of categori...

When you think of the first "Act" of this play, think of traditional familial-gender-racial roles as a bunch of bowling pins. Caryl Churchill sets them up for you and then gleefully knocks them dow...

In 2009, Caryl Churchill got herself into a heap of controversy when she wrote a play criticizing an Israeli military strike on Gaza (Source). In 1982, Cloud 9 won an Obie Award for best play. The...

No getting around it. This is one raunchy play. Now for much of the play, you don't actually see any sex. But in the second act, there's a pretty intense orgy that involves people offering to do ce...

British Colonialism (cited through all of Act 1, as Clive is an Englishman stationed in Africa whose job it is to control the local villagers)