"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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"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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"'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which it arose have changed radically, and have not...Where it is satirical, it is self-consciously so, and not a day outdated...By the end, in ways both intentional and not, Churchill leaves you feeling as if you’ve lived through the emotional torment of all the decades the play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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"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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"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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"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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"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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