RTP'S 25th Anniversary Season Continues with CLOUD 9

Richmond Triangle Players continues its 25th Anniversary Season with a production of Caryl Churchill's gender-bending comedy Cloud 9. A sex farce that is really more about sexual politics, the production opens Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 8 pm, following a low-priced preview on Wednesday, September 27. The production runs through October 21.

Identities whirl and evolve in Churchill's period-hopping puzzle, with its first act in British colonial Africa in the Victorian era and the second in a 1979 London Park in that feels virtually like today -- even though between the acts only twenty-five years pass for the characters. A smart, precise and delightfully showy comedy that twists gender and race, Cloud 9 has only grown fuller, meatier, sadder, funnier, sexier, and more provocative since its premiere almost 40 years ago.

About a recent revival, The New York Times said, "Ms. Churchill, one of the wisest and bravest playwrights on the planet, understands that sex is endlessly fluid, no matter the time, place, or culture in which it is practiced. More than three decades ago ...she dared set up camp in that hazy frontier land where the boundaries of gender and the rules of attraction blur and dissolve."

"Needless to say," says RTP executive director Philip Crosby, "as we were curating the programming for this milestone season, we knew we had to include this play."

The production marks the RTP debut of director RusTy Wilson, acclaimed for his work in area productions of Death of a Salesman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Eurydice at the Firehouse Theatre Project, and In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) at Cadence Theatre Company.

The cast includes RTP veterans Andrew Firda (Angels in America, Lazarus Syndrome), Jessi Johnson (Psycho Beach Party, It Shoulda Been You), Jennie Meharg (Design for Living, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), and Caleb Wade (We Three Lizas). Making their RTP debuts are three actors with a long association in productions Wilson has directed -- Matt Bloch, Larry Cook, and Laine Satterfield.

Richmond Triangle Players' performances take place at its home at the newly-named Robert B. Moss Theatre at 1300 Altamont Avenue, just northwest of the intersection of the Boulevard and West Broad Street. Reserved seat tickets ($30for Fridays and Saturdays evenings at 8:00 pm, $28 for Thursday evenings at 8:00 pm and Sunday matinees at 4:00 pm, with discounts for groups and students) can be purchased online at RTP's web site at www.rtriangle.org, on RTP's facebook page, or by leaving a message on the RTP Ticket hotline at 804-346-8113.

The Robert B. Moss Theatre is a 4000-square foot performing arts facility accommodating flexible seating arrangements for up to 90 patrons. The building features fully ADA-compliant access and comfortable restrooms, as well as a generous bar, and catering capability, and is also available for cabaret performances and private events.