Unusual Casting in the Play Cloud Nine

Unusual Casting in the Play Cloud Nine

Elements of film production are also known as the techniques used in film production to draw a response from the audience and have a successful production. The main components are Camera, sound, editing, and mise-en-scene. Other elements include plot structure, theme, characters that fall under casting, settings, and narrative possibilities. Mise-en-scene is everything seen in shot and arrangement of things that are related; therefore, it is the visual composition of a film. Casting is the selection of an actor, singer  and a dancer for a role in a script of a play. The film director may complete this by having auditions. In this case, we look at the odd casting by Churchill in the play cloud nine. This essay aims to explain the ridiculousness of gender and racial roles in this play.

Cloud Nine is a delightful comedy about gender politics, sexual identity, racism, colonization, and oppression by Carly Churchill 1979. This play shows the burden of a specific gender and racial expectations placed on individuals (Jesse 2015). It also plays a role in examining gender and social functions. In this play, Churchill’s casting specifications are disoriented and rather unusual where characters play neither their age nor gender. The male characters are dressed as females, and females play men. A housewife is represented by a man while a woman performs a schoolboy. Also, Joshua, a black character who is a slave, is played by a white cast. The actor also goes ahead to acknowledge his dark complexion but insists his soul is white, which sounds very ironical. Her definition of gender and race is far from the original one.  Despite the odd casting, the equivalence and comparison of gender and sexuality are made.

This unusual casting is not just for entertainment purposes, but she uses to emphasize some social issues that happen in society every day. Her choice of characters is not based on their acting capabilities but their sexual identity differences.  This choice of deviation from usual casting had a specific impact on individuals generally from the participants and those watching (Harding 1997). The actors were forced to move out of their comfort zones to fit into their roles. The high tension during the play’s production affected even those who perceived themselves as open-minded. Their standard identities were contradicted, which was somehow uncomfortable at first, but as time moved, they got used to it and eventually saw the whole issue from a different angle. Harding continues to show how one of the actors, Anthony Sher’s misconception on sexuality, contradicted to his character in the script (58). It made him rethink his sexuality and concluded that his preconceptions about himself were far from right. He also understood others and stopped judging them based on his fallacious assumptions. This was personal since this kind of exposure changed them mentally and their attitude towards sexuality. Churchill also had the intention of creating an overpowering environment for her audience similar to that of the play,s participants. She needed people to interpret the topic of gender and sexuality and not to rely on what they knew. The play raised sexual-political discussions that become popular even to date.

Through the play, assumptions on the homosexuals’ desire were entirely challenged. With her strange casting, she tries to separate heterosexual cultures from homoerotic wants and needs. The western society has been known not to embrace homosexuality, but Carly’s casting portrays an image of precisely what homosexuality is. She uses lesbian and gay characters to bring attention to this crucial debate. The characters exhibit and explain different gender sexuality roles. The characters want to be accepted and acknowledged in society. Harry, a homosexual character, is caught in the act but instead apologizes and claims that his nature is worse than a killer disease, and it is irresistible to be his true self. Churchill uses her characters to overturn and undermine the only-accepted sexual values.

She also uses this particular casting to describe feminism, where, in the first act, a character by the name Victoria is described as a damn person while in the second act, she emerges as a standard economically stable woman (Siklar 345). She also explains modern feminism by using the character Kerr who inherits her mother and conquers all despite her messed upbringing. The role gives way out of impossibilities in life by saying that states that, if there is no perfect way out of a situation, then one should invent one. Her bold attempt to self-recreate herself moves the audience. Researchers also say that severe reaction to the play has also emphasized on the accomplishments of the feminists.

Miss Carly unusual casting glues the audience to their sits. The unique environment created by this gives them a reason to want to stay, concentrate, and watch happens next. This technique helps catch the full attention of the audience you are having at your production review. The reaction of the audience is very important to film and play producers because they help in rating the perfection of their production. Conclusion about the play can simply be made from a positive or a negative attitude towards it. The main aim of production is to make money and profit from it therefore, satisfied audience equals more income. A good casting also promotes the jobs of actors since other producers would appreciate having them on their films to create a similar experience for the clients in this case the audience. The script is properly played but the audience yarns for interchanging of the characters (Frank 1981). The element of Pollyanna-ism is also satisfied when Carly gives happy endings to all characters in the play which gives the audience an anticipated satisfaction. Naturally, happy endings are more favorable to those that live one with suspense, thus giving one the motivation to watch the play till the end. This also defamiliarizes those watching the play to establish an alienation impact. This makes the audience to think and interpret the scenes deeply instead of them just sitting there and gazing at the actors guessing their obvious next moves. Characters is in act one are different in act two this being another branch of her odd casting that helps the audiences stay alert by creating artificiality.

In conclusion Carly’s odd casting has portrayed the ridiculousness gender sexuality and racial roles in the play Cloud Nine. She gives characters roles that do not match their gender, nor age and those that deviate from their moral preconceptions. Characters go out of their leagues to perfect their act. This unique casting proved to be relevant in film or play production since it aided Cloud Nine production and helped meet the producer’s intentions. The choice of casting helped the actors and audience have a different view of their sexuality, homosexuality in the society is also explained, the choice of the actors should be made based on the predetermined objective of the play but not their acting capabilities, how feminism evolves, and that attention of the audience is highly influenced by the type of casting therefore this should be applied in more films in the future.