Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Deviously Playful and Blunt
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 least, until everyone starts talking) is that Churchill is also ruthlessly blunt when it comes to sexuality. At the end of Act 1, Scene 1, Harry Bagley turns to the black servant Joshua and asks, "Shall we go in the barn and f---?" (1.1.406). Blunt much? That's the worst pick-up line we've ever heard. And we've heard a lot.
As the play continues, Churchill gets even blunter about sexuality. In Act 2, for example, the character Lin makes only a slight amount of small talk before asking her friend Victoria, "Will you have sex with me?" (2.1.276). We expect Victoria to be appalled by the bluntness, but all she can ask in return is, "Does it count as adultery with a woman?" (2.1.277-278). Through this bluntness, Churchill is able to mock the fact that Victoria is more concerned with the label "adultery" than she is with the actual question of having sex with Lin.
Rather than piling up more and more examples of Churchill's bluntness, we'll just say that we've only scratched the surface of how candid this play gets about sex. Let's just say that if you used most of Cloud 9's romantic lines on a prospective date (especially a certain I-love-you-so-much-I'd-have-sex-with-your-dead-body speech), you would probably get smacked in the face.