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.

“I think Churchill’s working with the idea that gender and race and class are often constructs, they’re often behaviours we create, stories we tell ourselves about who we should be,” says Ann-Marie. “And they’re political structures too, part of how we organize ourselves in society. Sometimes those structures are politically expedient. They’re a really good shorthand way of saying ‘you’re a woman, you have no power.’”

“Churchill uses the casting as a device to ask us to look at something with a different set of eyes,” says Megan Follows. “She’s playing with our preconceived notions of people, and that goes for sexuality too. The casting turns homosexuality into heterosexuality, heterosexuality into homosexuality, there’s bisexuality too. Preconceptions go out the window.”

Ann-Marie suggests an additional layer. “I think the casting also tells us something about what’s happened to the British Empire. In Act 2, five-year-old Cathy is played by the man who plays the patriarch in the first act. The patriarch is gone, and instead there’s an angry, joyful, hungry little girl who doesn’t know how to direct her energies, who runs around in a pink dress, toting a gun.” Adds David, who gets to wear the pants and then the dress: “Cathy, like any young child, dominates a room. In a way, she’s like a little emotional imperialist – an imperialist with a skipping rope.”

(Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann)

This morning started with a costume quick change rehearsal. Megan’s got some really fast changes in the first act – her costumes are truly incredible and she looks fantastic.

We’ve been in the theatre for three days now. The first day was just working through the show for spacing, with everyone getting used to their new home. Yesterday and today have been spent doing a Q2Q (that’s “cue to cue” in layman’s terms).

The days are long but everyone is in good spirits and the show is looking just wonderful. Tomorrow we’ll do our first run in the theatre, something we’re all really looking forward to.

John Stead demonstrating fight moves

Yesterday most of the cast got to play rough with John Stead, fight director extraordinaire.  It started off with Ann-Marie (playing 9-year-old Edward) getting the brunt of it, tussling with Evan over a doll and then receiving convincing slaps from both Evan (as mother Betty – note the ever-present heels) and Megan. Then it was David’s turn to give Ann-Marie a nice smack across the head.

Ann-Marie MacDonald and Evan Buliung rehearsing

Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Jansen practicing

The best was saved for last, with Evan and Megan (as Mrs. Saunders) giving “cat fight” a whole new twist. Blair finally got into the action, trying to tear the two of them apart.

John Stead supervising Megan Follows and Evan Buliung's cat fight

Time to pull Evan and Megan apart