CLOUD 9, About Face Theatre. A sturdy vehicle for a supple cast, Caryl Churchill’s 1979 gender-bending play is its own two-act rotating repertory. Kyle Hall’s cast successfully rises to its occasions.
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The first act, set at the apogee of the British Empire, depicts a patriarchal, colonialist, racist, misogynist Victorian family. Since divorce is forbidden, adultery flourishes, and since only certain forms of heterosexuality are approved, pedophilia, miscegenation, and homosexuality come in through the back door. The second act is set a century later, but the survivors have aged only 25 years. These ex-Victorians enjoy a broader gender menu–women’s liberation, gay sex, lesbian love–but, wisely, Churchill implies that freedom brings new troubles and stereotypes. The tension between new institutions and old longings means that commitment still vies with experimentation.
