Cloud Nine Read online

  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.