Cloud Nine

When I read the synopsis of this gender bending, cross dressing, actor swapping, century stretching play, I have to admit that I thought this was the wrong show to watch after a long day at work.  

All fears of getting lost or confused (and having to bluff through a review), were soon swept aside by the wonderful marriage of a splendid production and an always engaging narrative in a stunningly beautifully written play.

Act one is set in Africa, where a family of British colonialists are celebrating Christmas. In this production the starched dresses and suits of the characters contrasted markedly with the lush brown dirt they frolicked across. 

The play opens with an amusing Gilbert and Sullivan like song, but soon the traditional Victorian roles they are meant to follow begun to unravel. 

Josh McConville as Clive (the Commander of the outpost) reminded me of the Captain of the HMS Pinafore. His pompous and patriarchal attitude are all the more amusing when the hank panky commences. The Sydney Theatre Company warns that there is content of a highly sexual nature in this production and they are not crying wolf. 

Clive' s long suffering repressed wife Betty is played in the first act by Harry Greenwood. Verging on pantomime his performance was irresistible. 

Indeed irresistible is the apt word, as all sorts of irresistible un-Victorian sexual urges take over.  

Heather Mitchell, who plays a young boy in the first act, dived into the action keeping the audience on edge with her delicious attempts to catch a ball and inappropriate sexual entreaties.

The second act is set a century later in England but the characters have only aged 25 years. The brown dirt has been replaced by lush lawn. The only built structure - a glasshouse - hosts a series of scenes which vanish and re-appear in wizard like split seconds.

Adding to the challenge for the audience is that some of the actors have swapped roles, and others are playing new characters.

Josh McConville was transformed from a British soldier into a little girl. Harry Greenwood has gone from wife to an adult gay gardener. Heather Mitchell is no longer a boy but the British commander's wife Betty in a modern context. 

Even though the times have changed, the struggles for the characters to live comfortably within their own skin and express their own sexuality remains. 

Some of the repression which was in place during Victorian times remains whilst new challenges have arisen.

The threads sweep towards a very moving conclusion.

David Spicer

Photographer: Daniel Boud