A Masterpiece Revived

The National Theatre stages Cloud 9, an early-career masterwork from the celebrated award-winning playwright Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, Serious Money) this year. Directed by the National's associate director Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Follies), the revival marks the latest collaboration in a long running professional association between Cooke and Churchill. A trademark, hard-hitting work from Churchill with themes of oppression both colonial and sexual.

What Is The Story?

Cloud 9 is made up of two contrasting acts. The first is set in a British colonial outpost in Africa during the Victorian era, centering on a colonial family with a rigid patriarch and the various figures around them who are either the architects or victims of imperial oppression. The second act shifts to London roughly a century later, following many of the same characters reconfigured into the new setting, as they navigate contemporary urban life, drawing attention to the themes that pervade all kinds of power structures.