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Cloud Nine, A Play Written by Caryl Churchill Takes Place Largely in Britain. The Show Is

Cloud Nine, a play written by Caryl Churchill, takes place in Britain and centers around British culture. The play describes confusion and chaos, telling the story of Clive, a dominant British man connected to other characters. There are many oddly portrayed characters that subvert stereotypes and social constructs, such as Betty being played by a male actor in drag and Victoria being portrayed as a puppet rather than an actress. While confusing for some audiences, the play satirizes British culture through its radically diverse casting and characterization.

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85 views

Cloud Nine, A Play Written by Caryl Churchill Takes Place Largely in Britain. The Show Is

Cloud Nine, a play written by Caryl Churchill, takes place in Britain and centers around British culture. The play describes confusion and chaos, telling the story of Clive, a dominant British man connected to other characters. There are many oddly portrayed characters that subvert stereotypes and social constructs, such as Betty being played by a male actor in drag and Victoria being portrayed as a puppet rather than an actress. While confusing for some audiences, the play satirizes British culture through its radically diverse casting and characterization.

Uploaded by

thejacobshow24553
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Jacob Lee

Professor Dippel

DRAMA 09

May 8 2018

Cloud Nine Analysis

Cloud Nine, a play written by Caryl Churchill takes place largely in Britain. The show is

centered largely around British culture. The play itself is rather odd, for it describes an event of

confusion and pandemonium. Cloud Nine tells the story about Clive, who is a british man that

has connections with the other characters. He “wears the pants,” as he seems to be the one in

charge and the one who is most dominant throughout the play. There are many characters who

are portrayed in a very odd fashion- one that you wouldn’t expects based on stereotypes and

other social constructs. For example, Betty is played buy a male actor who is in drag. Victoria is

a dummy rather than just an actress. These two happen to be the most bizarre, taking gender

roles, social constructs, and the idea of typical theatrical experience into account. Other odd

casting choices can be seen in Edward and Joshua, for example. This is a rather ridiculously cast

and ridiculously written play that happens to be rather confusing for many readers and audience

members. One does not expect such a diverse group of actors on stage playing characters that in

many way oppose who they are visually and biologically. It can be argued that aside from the

radically ironic characterization, the play has a strong correlation to British culture. British

culture is something that Americans find very interesting. They tend to look at British

stereotypes and use it in comparison to American culture. Many Americans idolize British

musicians. Overall, Americans tend to think of British people as snobby, intelligent, feminine,

and farcical. Hence, Cloud Nine works very well as a satire.


Cloud Nine is surprisingly reminiscent of Punch and Judy shows. One main connection

between the two is how they are portrayed. Victoria, who is portrayed as a puppet in Cloud Nine

is reminiscent of the characters in Punch and Judy. As a puppet show targeted toward children,

Punch and Judy is about Mr. Punch and his wife Judy and their attempts to raise a baby. Often

times, Judy would go off stage saying that she must go out. She tends to be reluctant to leave the

baby with Punch (who is notoriously violent and cannot speak English), but ends up doing so

anyway. Punch often does crazy things to their child, often putting it in danger. Judy would

often come back to see Punch dropping the baby down a set of stairs or throwing it out of a

window for seemingly no discernible reason. Other characters recur in Punch and Judy shows.

Joey the Clown often appears as somewhat off a comedic character. Joey and the Police Man are

often victims to Punch’s violent acts. Even crocodiles, ghosts, and dogs appear in the show.

These characters serve many purposes, but all tend to revolve around Punch’s psychopathic

tendencies.

While these are two very different works of very different genres, they share some

resemblance to each other. Not only do they both contain puppetry, but both are strongly

associated with British culture. Therefore, it is common to see British people, American people,

and people around the world enjoying works such as these. Theatre is often about storytelling

and explaining. Therefore, Cloud Nine is a play that shares a strangely beautiful story that

demonstrates a satirical view of British culture.

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