STAGE REVIEW : The Drift of ‘Cloud 9’ Is Hard to Catch but Worth It

Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud 9” is a theatrical house of mirrors. Time veers dizzily from the turn of the century to 1980 (but the characters only age 25 years), the actors play multiple roles (two in hilariously unconvincing drag) and the graphic plot caroms through a jumble of themes including lesbianism, homosexuality, pedophilia, British imperialism and empire’s decline.

It’s a goofy, discursive, political, bittersweet and dangerous work. The estimable South Coast Repertory pulled it off in 1986 by refusing to anesthetize its provocation and hoping that the audience would not be baffled by all the thematic sleight-of-hand.

Now, Cal State Fullerton is trying to do the same--and succeeding. In fact, in many ways, the university’s Alvin Keller-directed production is just as valid as SCR’s. The acting isn’t always as polished but is still more than accomplished. The comic and foreboding first act, while not as rigorously paced as at SCR, is acidly entertaining and frank. As at SCR, the more melancholy second act captures that feeling of moral indifference and sexual confusion that Churchill believes afflicts modern times.

Churchill’s 1979 play expects a lot from those who stage it and from those who come to watch it. Even with the best direction, the unusual form of “Cloud 9” can throw you off--it helps to know from the start that continuity here only loosely follows our customary perceptions of reality. People don’t age the way they should or always look the way we think they will. Churchill comically tampers with our senses and expectations in an effort to liberate us from conventional points of view.

For instance, in the farcical first act (set in colonial Africa during the 1880s), poor frustrated Betty is played by Timothy Pulice, all done up in heavy makeup, corseted bodice and flustered manners. But in the second act (set in 1980 London), Pulice emerges as Gerry, a grim, black-jacketed gay hustler.

The first act’s Joshua, a “native” servant with a buried rage against the white family that controls him, is embodied by Greg Neagle, who comes back later as a bratty little girl. Karlie Cook, who plays two roles in the first act, becomes the middle-aged Betty in the second. These are just a few examples of the topsy-turvy role romping. And so it goes.

Act One, while madcap, in many ways is the most surprising, mainly because the setting is so innocuous, at least on the surface. We are presented a handful of characters who inhabit a British settlement in Africa, do a lot of flag-waving and worry about the restless natives. But under this silly sheen of English uprightness is a sexual jungle, where everyone wants to get it on, including the adolescent Edward (Annette Reid).

Betty’s husband, Clive (Forrest Robinson), is yearning to bed their neighbor, Mrs. Saunders (Karlie Cook), and Betty has a palpitating attraction to Harry Bagley (Edward Mitchell), a local explorer who’s a bit of a bore. But Harry would rather explore the sexual terrain of the men and, in fact, has been carrying on a shameful affair with Joshua and Edward. The nanny, Ellen (Karlie Cook again) wants to caress Betty. And so it goes.

All this spoken and unspoken lust would seem merely trivial if not played against the stiff-upper-lip primness and perceptions of the English society the characters inhabit. Churchill uses this as a foil for humor both zany and cerebral.

Sex isn’t only an animalistic delight here, it is also a symbol of nationalistic exploitation, male domination and feminine liberation. Sure, it can all get a little cloudy, but the freshness of thought makes the thematic flaws forgivable.

The liberating (especially feminist) sweep of “Cloud 9” is expanded in Act Two. Without Victorian strictures to harness and guide them, the characters can break out and relax in their chosen life styles. Edward (now played by Mitchell) can try to become Gerry’s “wife,” and Betty can freely discover masturbation as well as a less literal self-love. The baby Victoria (played by a rag doll in Act One), now grown up, looks to lesbian Lin (Brenda Smith) for satisfaction and growth.

But despite all the freedom, life still has its complications and compromises. Relationships don’t work out and, worse than that, we still suffer the ennui that simply comes from living. A somewhat corny but altogether touching speech by matriarchal Betty tries to put everything into focus at the end: The message is that we must muddle through, all the while knowing our responsibility to ourselves and others to make things better.

Cook’s sensitive handling of this final soliloquy underscores what is right about CSF’s faceted “Cloud 9.” The young cast, director Keller, costumer Donn Hook, set designer Charles L. Messerly and lighting designer Tony Maggi have brought abundant care and good sense to this production, so much that it seems a shame the play’s run ends Sunday after only two weeks.

‘CLOUD 9’

A Cal State Fullerton production of Caryl Churchill’s play. Directed by Alvin Keller. With Timothy Pulice, Forrest Robinson, Greg Neagle, Karlie Cook, Brenda Smith, Annette Reid and Edward Mitchell. Sets by Charles L. Messerly. Costumes by Donn Hook. Lighting by Tony Maggi. Sound by John R. Fisher. Plays tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m., with a 2:30 matinee on Saturday at the campus’s Recital Hall. Tickets: $4 to $6. (714) 773-3371.