Cloud Nine at Sydney Theatre Company

Scandalously funny, thought-provoking and heartbreaking, Cloud Nine is an enduring theatrical masterpiece.

It's a story about people bursting to change who they are. Betty is a mother lusting for adultery. Edward is a boy trying to be a man. Joshua is a servant with a hunger for power. Ellen is a governess in love with another woman. Around them is an extended family of husbands, sisters, lovers and friends. Everyone is looking for liberation.

Their story begins in Victorian-era Africa – a time of corsets and colonies, of suppressed urges and hunting rifles. The play ends in London a century later, but the characters have aged only 25 years. For some, dreams have come true. For others, the complications have only just begun. Along the way, Churchill unpicks the knotted realities of love and identity with an audacious sense of humour and more than a little sauciness.