Cloud 9 Repression Quotes

Harry Bagley has lived a lie his entire life. He's never really told any other adult that he enjoys having sex with males, particularly young boys. But now that Clive has found out about his true desires, the only way for Harry to keep living in a homophobic society is to bury his true self by marrying a woman. Harry's other option for escape is killing himself, so he figures getting married isn't the worst thing in the world.

Joshua has completely repressed the fact that he's black, which is exacerbated by the fact that the script calls for him to be played by a white person. But Joshua also shows his repression by claiming to hate other Africans over and over again. This is exactly how white colonial culture wants him to feel, because the whole point of colonialism is to get the colonized peoples to believe that their being colonized is a good thing.

Edward doesn't like it when Lin calls him out in the park for being gay. Sure, it's the modern age in Act 2. But that doesn't mean that everyone's as understanding as Lin. Edward's boss, for example, would probably fire him if he found out Edward was gay. Cue the repression, and Edward's attempt to hide who he really is.