Cloud 9 at the SiLo Theatre

Previewed by NIGEL GEARING

Edwin Wright is full of nervous energy, smoking furiously. His first time in the director's chair came about by coincidence. Originally a member of the cast in Cloud 9, when the chance came to direct the play he grabbed the opportunity to give a long-held dream a go.

"It's been one hell of a learning curve," Wright says.

Rehearsals for Caryl Churchill's seminal piece take up at least seven hours a day working with eight actors. On top of that the 30-year-old is also performing his solo piece of physical theatre, Bruised, at the SiLo six nights a week.

"It's so hard to get work in this town that you grab it when it comes along," he says. "I first read Cloud 9 while I was studying drama at Otago University. "While it was written in 1979, it's still totally relevant today."

And for that reason he has changed nothing from the original play which premiered in London, where it must have rubbed salt in a large wound if rehearsals at the SiLo have been anything to go by.

The first act is set in colonial Africa in the 1870s. The second is in London 100 years later. But there's a twist: all the characters have aged only 25 years.

And to add to the mix, men play women, women play men, white actors play black characters and while being a serious take on how far we have come and have still to go on the path to overcoming repression, the play is in parts hilarious.

Jon Brazier plays Clive, the patriarch serving his Queen, God and country and taming the natives. In his own words when addressing his family: "Through our father we love our father, God and queen."

His wife Betty hangs on his every word. Betty is played by Jeremy Brenan. She lusts after Uncle Harry, played by Russell Pickering who is a gay explorer who is in a relationship with Clive and Betty's son, Edward, played by Amanda Billing. Clive's manservant is played by Toby Leach, a young black man desperate to escape his race and embrace being white and therefore superior.

Add to the mix Anna Hewlett who plays Clive and Betty's lesbian nanny, Ellen, who is in love with Betty. She also plays the only sexually liberated character in the first act, Mrs Saunders.

Says Clive: "I have had an erection ever since you entered this house."

"It's a full-on assault on sexual hypocrisy," Wright says.

When Clive expatiates on the merits of male friendship to Harry, he interprets this as a come-on and put his arms around Clive's waist.

Clive's brilliant homophobic, camp overreaction lasts over a minute.

In shock, he flings himself against the wall. "This sin could destroy an empire. This disease is contagious. You don't do it with the natives do you? Oh God, rivers are going to be named after you."

Clive may well have been right. In act two it becomes vividly evident how far social mores have changed. Gays seem to be everywhere.

"The whole thing comes full circle," Wright says. "It's karmic. It is a very complex play."

Clive now plays Cathy, a 5-year-old girl whose mother Victoria is openly gay and has taken a fancy for Lin, a bisexual who is married to Martin, a try-hard, hip kind of guy for his time, though still trapped in his suburban world. Edward has now grown up into a gay man who is living with Gerry, but the relationship is in trouble. Gerry is threatened by Edward's attempt to mirror a heterosexual marriage with Edward as the wife.

And Lucy Wigmore, who plays Betty's nightmarish mother, re-emerges, newly divorced and tasting independence for the first time. She constantly checks the cash in her wallet. After all, Clive has always handled the money in the past.

Where did the name of the play come from?

"This was workshopped theatre," says Wright. "Caryl Churchill presented her play to actors to interpret and add to. During this process the caretaker of the rehearsal building of the original cast described how, having escaped a repressive marriage, she finally achieved orgasm in middle age. She described the experience as being on Cloud 9."

* SiLo Theatre, April 14 to May 1, Monday and Tuesday, 7pm; Wednesday to Saturday, 8pm