I didn’t quite reach Cloud 9 while reading this play. I am not sure I even got off the ground. When one needs a flow chart to follow who is playing whom, and doing what with whom, to who which is not really whom you think they are; is a bit much. Plays are meant to be seen and not read and this play should be the poster child of that saying. This is a ploy usually when writing a farce and I do not see this as anything but a group of people getting together and saying “lets write a crazy play” Some things work, but many don’t.
There are a couple good moments in this play, like the moment Joshua is about to shoot Clive and Edward is the only one to see it coming. Too bad this doesn’t happen earlier so we could be put out of our miseries. I am more connected in Act one than in Act two. There is more a cohesion in Act one than Act Two. Do we really need Act two in this play? My vote is no.
This is not the only play that takes characters from one act and transports them to another time in the second. Other plays like The Most Fabulous Story Ever told and the Broadway musical Romance, Romance do this and do it much better.
Cross gender casting is always fun and can add a bit of excitement to a show. However in Cloud 9 I find it distracting, but like I said earlier it may be because I am not seeing it. With the scene between Harry and Edward there would be a really creepy vibe between the two had they actually cast Edward as a guy. (Pg 23-25)
I have a question maybe someone can help me answer. Why is it that of sum 40 plays and 50 years of writing I have never heard of ONE single play this person has written? Who does that speak less of? Me for not knowing them or of them not being widely produced?
1 comment:
Point well taken that, when read, the multiple casting is somewhat confusing. But can you think of what that might tell you about the meaning of the play? I wonder if the effect is intended to be disorienting, opening things up about character and identity rather than giving fixed answers.
Also, I haven't read either of the plays you've mentioned (although we're thinking about using part of The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told in the project I'm working on right now ...) Can you give us an example of why you think their use of similar techniques is more effective?
You point out a really significant thing about this play, though: the unusual use of time. Right a way it gives a sense of theatricality and imagination rather than acceptance or representation of the rules of time as they are.
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