Cloud Nine - TNT

Written in a collaborative process with Joint Stock Theatre Company almost three decades ago, Caryl Churchill's inventively playful comparison of the role of women and repressed minorities (defined either by race or sexuality)in 19th century British colonial Africa and what was then contemporary London is very much a play of two halves. Her exaggerated, cartoonish portrayal of the Brits abroad is mercilessly unforgiving — they may be in charge of the natives, but they're certainly not in control of their own sexual urges. Cheekily, male actor Bo Poraj is cast as subservient Victorian wife Betty (who pays lipservice to the superiority of her pompous husband while being propositioned by both his rampantly bisexual friend and the household nanny) and Nicola Walker plays her adolescent son (who infuriatingly prefers dolls to guns).In the second act, the characters have only aged 25 years but find themselves in '70s London where anything goes and men are no longer seen as protectors. But liberation has brought its own complexities, and Thea Sharrock's supremely well-acted production highlights the ongoing confusion which still spikes the minefield of sexual politics.
Almeida, Almeida St N1 (020-7359 4404). Until December 8