Sydney Theatre Company presents
CLOUD NINE
By Caryl Churchill

Nobody is quite what they seem

Following the popular and critical success of Love and Information in 2015, Kip Williams continues his exploration of Caryl Churchill’s plays with her unique masterpiece, Cloud Nine.

The play begins in colonial Africa, amidst the Victorian constrictions of corset and empire. Betty is a young mother who lives only to please. Edward is a boy unsure of how to be a man. Around them is an extended family, in which all are struggling to live and thrive in the clothes they’re given and the expectations that come with them.

The play ends in London a century later, but the characters have aged only 25 years. In the course of time passing, Churchill unpicks the knotted realities of human relationships – between lovers, between siblings, between genders, between generations. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, it is a play about love and work, race and power, identity and sex. As ever, Churchill distils a symphonic array of politics and ideas into living, breathing, tangible characters.

With sets and costumes by STC Resident Designer Elizabeth Gadsby (Disgraced), Cloud Nine sees the return of Harry Greenwood (Love and Information), Kate Box (ABC’s Rake) and Josh McConville (All My Sons) in this profoundly playful and timely production.

“The cleverest, drollest, most sexily experimental exercise in ‘compare and contrast’ that British theatre has probably ever seen.”
The Telegraph, UK