See it if This play hasn't aged at all. Intense. Complex. Sophisticated dramatization of race, class, gender, empire. Churchill = great playwright.
Don't see it if You are looking for a whacky comedy. You like comfortable seating.
See it if You don't need a big set or big production to enjoy a show
Don't see it if The above doesn't apply
See it if you are a fan of well-stacked, absurdist theatre. This was an amazing production of a great play.
Don't see it if you have reservations about progressive thinking and innovative theatre.
See it if you love great off-broadway theater that is creative and intelligent
Don't see it if you don't like excruciatingly painful unique seating.
See it if you love classic Caryl Churchill that is well performed and staged.
Don't see it if a sore butt is very annoying. Grandstand seating is VERY uncomfy. Best seats by a bit are front row
See it if You appreciate gender bending & examination of gender ( a little stale now but when first produced it was novel) You like intense drama
Don't see it if You have conventional ideas about gender You want something light
See it if you're looking for something provocative and edgy with superb acting.
Don't see it if you're easily confused or don't enjoy long plays.
See it if you enjoy cerebral, thought-provoking pieces that seamlessly blend comedy, drama, metatheater, and social commentary.
Don't see it if you can't sit on an uncomfortable bench for 2.5 hours.
"Few writers have come closer to making sense of the hormonal urges that rule, transport and disrupt our lives than Caryl Churchill does in 'Cloud Nine,' which opened on Monday night in a glorious revival...This compassionate, tough-loving production finds the ecstasy, tragedy and exhilarating madness of what it means to be part of this eternal ball of confusion."
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"A delicious hash of gender and genre, 'Cloud Nine' may be less surprising than it was 35 years ago, but director James Macdonald and his cast—performing in the round, to an audience seated on steep wooden bleachers—keep its edges sharp. Troubled and troubling, puckish and perverse, Churchill’s play is still a slice of theater heaven."
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"'Cloud Nine,' now in a superb revival at the Atlantic, has only grown fuller, meatier, sadder, funnier, sexier, and more provocative — more theatrical, too — as the conditions from which it arose have changed radically, and have not...Where it is satirical, it is self-consciously so, and not a day outdated...By the end, in ways both intentional and not, Churchill leaves you feeling as if you’ve lived through the emotional torment of all the decades the play covers, and those yet to come."
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"Several decades later, its outlook, if not quite its circa-'79 fashion, feels entirely current as an examination of gender and social roles and broad-minded, matter-of-fact sexuality. It remains intriguing, if no longer quite so subversive...The cast is strong, although some of the act-to-act transformations are less meaningful...There's a sense of fun in the performers that is lost from Act I to Act II, or at least in the characters, which renders their performances less crackling."
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"Macdonald has assembled a seamless ensemble and staged the show with a keen eye for its nuances, underplaying where no overstatement is needed. The crackle-golden lighting by Scott Zielinski and elegantly simple costumes by Gabriel Berry all conspire to make the evening as unforgettable as Tommy Tune’s original New York production all those many years ago. As a revelation, it’s déjà vu all over again."
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"For anyone who hasn’t seen 'Cloud Nine,' it is worth experiencing this play for the first time and for those who have, it is an enchanting production to witness. Although the content and issues presented in the piece may not leave you on 'cloud nine,' they will leave you thinking, and maybe discovering an honest nugget of truth about yourself that you were too scared to see."
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"There's a number of good reasons to see the Atlantic Theater Company's very fine revival of 'Cloud Nine,' including Caryl Churchill's wicked and funny gender-bending script about sex, power and roles...Laughs dry up in the less engaging half...Director James Macdonald, who knows his way around Churchill's works, stages the play in-the-round. Cramped wooden bleaches may make your back ache. The play and the performances will make your head buzz."
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"Are you willing to endure an extremely uncomfortable seating arrangement for a fine revival of one of the most dynamic English dramas of the past four decades?...James Macdonald has staged the revival in-the-round, with audience members sitting on tight benches around a small wooden arena. It's uncomfortable and, despite the added intimacy, unnecessary. But if you can withstand the lack of legroom, 'Cloud Nine' is experimental, highly political playwriting at its best."
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