Cloud 9 may be the best thing Jobsite Theater has ever done. Wonderful ensemble acting, terrific direction and colorful design all combined to make Caryl Churchill's comedy about gender, race and liberation a splendid success. Churchill makes many of her points with mind-boggling casting: a male character played by a woman, a female played by a man, a black man played by a white, a 5-year-old girl played by an adult male. And Jobsite's actors were up to the challenge: David Jenkins was hilarious as patriarch Clive and 5-year-old Kathy; Brandy Pedersen was perfect as a small boy and a modern woman; and Summer Bohnenkamp-Jenkins was delightful as matriarch Betty who, between nervous giggles, learns to come to grips with the untidy lives around her. Ami Sallee Corley's direction was admirably efficient, and Katrina Stevenson's costumes, like Dickey Corley's set, were cheerfully colorful. This was an intellectually provocative play about life's messy abundance and a pleasure from first to last.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2003.