Singing from Cloud 9 all about repression

Sex, gender, repression and outlandish characters are interwoven in a Palmerston North production this week.

Caryl Churchill’s farcical play Cloud 9 is being performed by Massey University’s theatre in production class.

Director Rachel Lenart said the play was ‘‘big and chaotic’’, and hilarious to watch.

Although filled with controversial and provocative scenes, Lenart said the 16 students had created a powerful and sophisticated play.

Cloud 9 takes part in two timeframes. Act 1 is set in Victoria Africa and confronts issues of colonisation and sexuality. Act 2 shifts to the sexual revolution and gender politics of the 1970s.

She said the themes of gender, sexuality, repression, power, identity and expectations were still just as relevant today as they was 30 years ago.

Churchill’s play purposely breaks traditional boundaries and in Lenart version, men play female characters and a young girl is played by a doll.

Lenart said she wanted audience members to walk away laughing. But she also wanted people to reflect on what has changed in society and what still needs to change.

Student and stage manager Lauren Fergusson plays the character Betty, alongside another actor.

Betty was one of the characters who evolved throughout the acts, finding a more confident version of herself by the end of the play.

In the production, students from the theatre in production paper take in performing, designing, assistant directing, stage managing and publicising the show as part of their assessment.

The 90-minute shows will be performed at Massey University’s Sir Geoffrey Peron Auditorium, from Wednesday May 31 to Friday June 2, at 7.30pm.

The cost of play is a koha (donation) and no booking is required.