CARYL CHURCHILL
CLOUD
9
London
NICK HERN BOOKS
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Title Page
Author’s Introduction
Note on the Text
Original Production
Act One
Act Two
About the Author
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Cloud Nine
Cloud Nine was written for Joint Stock Theatre Group in 1978-79. The company’s usual work method is to set up a workshop in which the writer, director and actors research a particular subject. The writer then goes away to write the play, before returning to the company for a rehearsal and rewrite period. In the case of Cloud Nine the workshop lasted for three weeks, the writing period for twelve, and the rehearsal for six.
The workshop for Cloud Nine was about sexual politics. This meant that the starting point for our research was to talk about ourselves and share our very different attitudes and experiences. We also explored stereotypes and role reversals in games and improvisations, read books and talked to other people. Though the play’s situations and characters were not developed in the workshop, it draws deeply on this material, and I wouldn’t have written the same play without it.
When I came to write the play, I returned to an idea that had been touched on briefly in the workshop – the parallel between colonial and sexual oppression, which Genet calls ‘the colonial or feminine mentality of interiorised repression’. So the first act of Cloud Nine takes place in Victorian Africa, where Clive, the white man, imposes his ideals on his family and the natives. Betty, Clive’s wife, is played by a man because she wants to be what men want her to be, and, in the same way, Joshua, the black servant, is played by a white man because he wants to be what whites want him to be. Betty does not value herself as a woman, nor does Joshua value himself as a black. Edward, Clive’s son, is played by a woman for a different reason partly to do with the stage convention of having boys played by women (Peter Pan, radio plays, etc.) and partly with highlighting the way Clive tries to impose traditional male behaviour on him. Clive struggles throughout the act to maintain the world he wants to see – a faithful wife, a manly son. Harry’s homosexuality is reviled, Ellen’s is invisible. Rehearsing the play for the first time, we were initially taken by how funny the first act was and then by the painfulness of the relationships – which then became more funny than when they had seemed purely farcical.
The second act is set in London in 1979 – this is where I wanted the play to end up, in the changing sexuality of our own time. Betty is middle-aged, Edward and Victoria have grown up. A hundred years have passed, but for the characters only twenty-five years. There were two reasons for this. I felt the first act would be stronger set in Victorian times, at the height of colonialism, rather than in Africa during the 1950s. And when the company talked about their childhoods and the attitudes to sex and marriage that they had been given when they were young, everyone felt that they had received very conventional, almost Victorian expectations and that they had made great changes and discoveries in their lifetimes.
The first act, like the society it shows, is male dominated and firmly structured. In the second act, more energy comes from the women and the gays. The uncertainties and changes of society, and a more feminine and less authoritarian feeling, are reflected in the looser structure of the act. Betty, Edward and Victoria all change from the rigid positions they had been left in by the first act, partly because of their encounters with Gerry and Lin.
In fact, all the characters in this act change a little for the better. If men are finding it hard to keep control in the first act they are finding it hard to let go in the second: Martin dominates Victoria, despite his declarations of sympathy for feminism, and the bitter end of colonialism is apparent in Lin’s soldier brother, who dies in Northern Ireland. Betty is now played by a woman, as she gradually becomes real to herself. Cathy is played by a man, partly as a simple reversal of Edward being played by a woman, partly because the size and presence of a man on stage seemed appropriate to the emotional force of young children, and partly, as with Edward, to show more clearly the issues involved in learning what is considered correct behaviour for a girl.
It is essential for Joshua to be played by a white, Betty (I) by a man, Edward (I) by a woman, and Cathy by a man.
The soldier should be played by the actor who plays Cathy. The doubling of Mrs Saunders and Ellen is not intended to make a point so much as for sheer fun – and of course to keep the company to seven in each act. The doubling can be done in any way that seems right for any particular production. The first production went Clive-Cathy, Betty-Edward, Edward-Betty, Maud-Victoria, Mrs Saunders/Ellen-Lin, Joshua-Gerry, Harry-Martin. When we did the play again, at the Royal Court in 1980, we decided to try a different doubling: Clive-Edward, Betty-Gerry, Edward-Victoria, Maud-Lin, Mrs Saunders/ Ellen-Betty, Joshua-Cathy, Harry-Martin. I’ve a slight preference for the first way because I like seeing Clive become Cathy, and enjoy the Edward-Betty connections. Some doublings aren’t practicable, but any way of doing the doubling seems to set up some interesting resonances between the two acts. Gerry’s age, referred to as thirty-two in the text, can be altered to fit the actor.
C.C. 1983
Cloud Nine was first performed at Dartington College of Arts on Wednesday 14 February 1979 by the Joint Stock Theatre Group, then on tour and at the Royal Court Theatre, London, with the following cast:
ACT ONE
CLIVE, a colonial administrator
Antony Sher
BETTY, his wife, played by a man
Jim Hooper
JOSHUA, his black servant, played by a white
Tony Rohr
EDWARD, his son, played by a woman
Julie Covington
MAUD, his mother-in-law
Miriam Margolyes
ELLEN, Edward’s governess / MRS SAUNDERS, a widow
Carole Hayman
HARRY BAGLEY, an explorer
William Hoyland
ACT TWO
BETTY
Julie Covington
EDWARD, her son
Jim Hooper
VICTORIA, her daughter
Miriam Margolyes
MARTIN, Victoria’s husband
William Hoyland
LIN
Carole Hayman
CATHY, Lin’s daughter aged 4 and 5, played by a man
Antony Sher
GERRY, Edward’s lover
Tony Rohr
Director: Max Stafford-Clark
Assistant Director: Les Waters
Designer: Peter Hartwell
Musical Director: Andy Roberts
Lighting Director: Robin Myerscough-Walker
Except for Cathy, characters in Act Two are played by actors of their own sex.
Act One takes place in a British colony in Africa in Victorian times. Act Two takes place in London in 1979. But for the characters it is twenty-five years later.
ACT ONE
Scene One
Low bright sun. Veranda. Flagpole with Union Flag. The family – CLIVE, BETTY, EDWARD, VICTORIA, MAUD, ELLEN, JOSHUA.
ALL (sing)
Come gather, sons of England, come gather in your pride.
Now meet the world united, now face it side by side;
Ye who the earth’s wide corners, from veldt to prairie, roam.
From bush and jungle muster all who call old England ‘home’.
Then gather round for England,
Rally to the flag,
From north and south and east and west
Come one and all for England!
CLIVE
This is my fami
ly. Though far from home
We serve the Queen wherever we may roam.
I am a father to the natives here,
And father to my family so dear.
He presents BETTY. She is played by a man.
My wife is all I dreamt a wife should be,
And everything she is she owes to me.
BETTY
I live for Clive. The whole aim of my life
Is to be what he looks for in a wife.
I am a man’s creation as you see,
And what men want is what I want to be.
CLIVE presents JOSHUA. He is played by a white.
CLIVE
My boy’s a jewel. Really has the knack.
You’d hardly notice that the fellow’s black.
JOSHUA
My skin is black but oh my soul is white.
I hate my tribe. My master is my light.
I only live for him. As you can see,
What white men want is what I want to be.
CLIVE presents EDWARD. He is played by a woman.
CLIVE
My son is young. I’m doing all I can
To teach him to grow up to be a man.
EDWARD
What father wants I’d dearly like to be.
I find it rather hard as you can see.
CLIVE presents VICTORIA, who is a dummy,
MAUD, and ELLEN.
CLIVE
No need for any speeches by the rest.
My daughter, mother-in-law, and governess.
ALL (sing)
O’er countless numbers she, our Queen,
Victoria reigns supreme;
O’er Africa’s sunny plains, and o’er
Canadian frozen stream;
The forge of war shall weld the chains of brotherhood secure;
So to all time in ev’ry clime our Empire shall endure.
Then gather round for England,
Rally to the flag,
From north and south and east and west
Come one and all for England!
All go except BETTY. CLIVE comes.
BETTY
Clive?
CLIVE
Betty. Joshua!
JOSHUA comes with a drink for CLIVE.
BETTY
I thought you would never come. The day’s so long without you.
CLIVE
Long ride in the bush.
BETTY
Is anything wrong? I heard drums.
CLIVE
Nothing serious. Beauty is a damned good mare. I must get some new boots sent from home. These ones have never been right. I have a blister.
BETTY
My poor dear foot.
CLIVE
It’s nothing.
BETTY
Oh but it’s sore.
CLIVE
We are not in this country to enjoy ourselves. Must have ridden fifty miles. Spoke to three different headmen who would all gladly chop off each other’s heads and wear them round their waists.
BETTY
Clive!
CLIVE
Don’t be squeamish, Betty, let me have my joke.
And what has my little dove done today?
BETTY
I’ve read a little.
CLIVE
Good. Is it good?
BETTY
It’s poetry.
CLIVE
You’re so delicate and sensitive.
BETTY
And I played the piano. Shall I send for the children?
CLIVE
Yes, in a minute. I’ve a piece of news for you.
BETTY
Good news?
CLIVE
You’ll certainly think it’s good. A visitor.
BETTY
From home?
CLIVE
No. Well of course originally from home.
BETTY
Man or woman?
CLIVE
Man.
BETTY
I can’t imagine.
CLIVE
Something of an explorer. Bit of a poet. Odd chap but brave as a lion. And a great admirer of yours.
BETTY
What do you mean? Whoever can it be?
CLIVE
With an H and a B. And does conjuring tricks for little Edward.
BETTY
That sounds like Mr Bagley.
CLIVE
Harry Bagley.
BETTY
He certainly doesn’t admire me, Clive, what a thing to say. How could I possibly guess from that. He’s hardly explored anything at all, he’s just been up a river, he’s done nothing at all compared to what you do. You should have said a heavy drinker and a bit of a bore.
CLIVE
But you like him well enough. You don’t mind him coming?
BETTY
Anyone at all to break the monotony.
CLIVE
But you have your mother. You have Ellen.
BETTY
Ellen is a governess. My mother is my mother.
CLIVE
I hoped when she came to visit she would be company for you.
BETTY
I don’t think mother is on a visit. I think she lives with us.
CLIVE
I think she does.
BETTY
Clive you are so good.
CLIVE
But are you bored my love?
BETTY
It’s just that I miss you when you’re away. We’re not in this country to enjoy ourselves. If I lack society that is my form of service.
CLIVE
That’s a brave girl. So today has been, all right? No fainting? No hysteria?
BETTY
I have been very tranquil.
CLIVE
Ah what a haven of peace to come home to. The cool, the calm, the beauty.
BETTY
There is one thing, Clive, if you don’t mind.
CLIVE
What can I do for you, my dear?
BETTY
It’s about Joshua.
CLIVE
I wouldn’t leave you alone here with a quiet mind if it weren’t for Joshua.
BETTY
Joshua doesn’t like me.
CLIVE
Joshua has been my boy for eight years. He has saved my life. I have saved his life. He is devoted to me and to mine. I have said this before.
BETTY
He is rude to me. He doesn’t do what I say. Speak to him.
CLIVE
Tell me what happened.
BETTY
He said something improper.
CLIVE
Well, what?
BETTY
I don’t like to repeat it.
CLIVE
I must insist.
BETTY
I had left my book inside on the piano. I was in the hammock. I asked him to fetch it.
CLIVE
And did he not fetch it?
BETTY
Yes, he did eventually.
CLIVE
And what did he say?
BETTY
Clive –
CLIVE
Betty.
BETTY
He said Fetch it yourself. You’ve got legs under that dress.
CLIVE
Joshua!
JOSHUA comes.
Joshua, madam says you spoke impolitely to her this afternoon.
JOSHUA
Sir?
CLIVE
When she asked you to pass her book from the piano.
JOSHUA
She has the book, sir.
BETTY
I have the book now, but when I told you –
CLIVE
Betty, please, let me handle this. You didn’t pass it at once?
JOSHUA
No sir, I made a joke first.
CLIVE
What was that?
JOSHUA
I said my legs were tired, sir. That was funny because the book was very near, it would not m
ake my legs tired to get it.
BETTY
That’s not true.
Cloud Nine Page 1
