Cloud 9

David Jansen as 5-year-old Cathy (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

The reviews – from old school critics, new school bloggers and from people who go see theatre to, well, go see theatre – are in. And they’re outstanding.

The Globe’s R. Kelly Nestruk says CLOUD 9 is “a parade of pleasurable performances.” The Sun’s John Colbourn describes it as a “brilliant and witty commentary on the enduring nature of human passion and compassion.” On CBC Radio One, resident theatre critic Lynn Slotkin raves that CLOUD 9 is “directed with style by Alisa Palmer” and “there are seven actors at the top of their game, and the result is a production that will have theatre-goers on cloud nine when they see it.”

In the blogosphere, mooneyontheatre is “fascinated by how well Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Jansen captured the mannerisms of their child characters”, while blogTO calls it a “raucous mash-up of age and gender, race and sexuality.”

But the most rewarding feedback is coming in from our audience: the people who are buying the tickets, braving the cold, and filling the Panasonic night after night. Sandy (a self-described late 40’s feminist engineer), writes on her blog that a “great script, excellent actors and fabulous costumes make for a fun night out.” Perry T. calls CLOUD 9 a “fantastic, daring show.” Patti S. “loved Churchill’s flip on gender, age and race.” And Barrie W. tells us: “I saw it in about 1982 or so, and don’t remember it being this funny.… The deliberate mixing up of genders is a brilliant theatrical conceit and takes the play out of the ordinary – now no less than 30 years ago. The cast is uniformly splendid.”

If you’ve seen CLOUD 9, tell us what you think – enter our “Was It Good For You?” contest here. And if you haven’t… well you should believe everything you read (just this once!) and come experience CLOUD 9 yourself.

Evan Buliung and Yanna McIntosh in Act 2 (Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann)

CLOUD 9 opened last night and it was fantastic! The show’s grown so much over the past week of previews, it’s really found its rhythm and now it really flies.

It’s obvious that the actors are really enjoying themselves and taking their audience on a wild ride along with them. The house was packed, and they were loving it. Lots of laughter, a few gasps – everyone seemed to be having a great time. Afterwards we all got to celebrate at a great party across the street at Zelda’s. The cast was finally able to kick back, relax and have a much-deserved drink or two.

It’s been a great process working on CLOUD 9, now we get to share it with the public and allow them to enjoy this amazing world that we’ve all worked so hard to create.

With only two days left to enter our “I’m on Cloud 9” contest, we hit the streets to find out what puts Torontonians on Cloud 9.

It turns out most of us haven’t moved very high up Maslow’s hierarchy when it comes to spontaneously articulating our most bliss-inducing states. Delicious taco anyone?

A look at our cast/character list reveals there’s something strange going on in Cloud 9. Some characters from Act 1 recur in Act 2, but they’re not played by the same actors. And in the colonial Africa of Act 1, Evan Buliung plays a woman, Ann-Marie MacDonald plays a young boy, and Ben Carlson plays a black African. In Act 2 (London circa 1980), David Jansen plays a five-year-old girl.

This isn’t some kind of half-baked experiment or the whim of director Alisa Palmer. In fact playwright Caryl Churchill dictates this casting very specifically – and our cast has a few insights why.

Continue Reading →