The first pictures from the rehearsal room have been released for Cloud 9, Caryl Churchill's 1979 play, which opens at the National Theatre's Lyttelton in November under the direction of Dominic Cooke.
Rehearsal photographs have been released for Cloud 9, which runs at the Lyttelton theatre at the National Theatre from 2 November 2026 until 13 January 2027. Dominic Cooke directs, and the pictures show Caryl Churchill herself in the room with him.
The production reunites Cooke with Churchill, and the play it takes on is one of her most formally daring. First performed in 1979, Cloud 9 opens in Victorian Africa, where a colonial administrator named Clive presides over a wife, a son and a servant who each struggle to be what is expected of them. Its second half finds the same family a hundred years later in 1970s London, in a world where empire lingers and freedom calls.
The company is Rebecca Humphries as Ellen, Mrs Saunders and Lin, Eloka Ivo as Joshua and Gerry, Tom Mothersdale as Harry Bagley and Martin, Charlotte Ritchie as Maud and Victoria, Ellen Robertson as Edward and Betty, Stuart Thompson as Betty and Edward, and Sam Troughton as Clive and Cathy. The doubling is the play's own: parts are cast across gender and across the century that separates the two halves.
Understudies are Tom Brace-Jenkins (Betty/Edward), Izaak Cainer (Clive/Cathy), Dan Furlonger (Harry Bagley/Martin), Skye Hallam (Maud/Victoria and Ellen/Mrs Saunders/Lin), Meg Lewis (Edward/Betty) and Ola Teniola (Joshua/Gerry).
Caryl Churchill has been an inspiration to me for decades. Her ability to bring complex current ideas to life in groundbreaking theatrical forms is second to none. Of her early plays, Cloud Nine is one of my favourites: by turns hilarious, insightful and astute. Its formally playful exploration of gender and sexuality was decades ahead of its time and still feels as fresh and pertinent as ever. I can't wait to bring this brilliant cast onto the Lyttelton stage and share Caryl's unique vision with National Theatre audiences.
That is Cooke, whose creative team is led by set designer Miriam Buether, costume designer Samuel Wyer, lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun and sound designer Donato Wharton. Andy Roberts is the composer and Josh Sneesby the music director, with casting by Naomi Downham, dialect coaching by Penny Dyer, voice work by Shereen Ibrahim, Luke Smith as associate set designer and Max Harrison as staff director.
Churchill remains one of the busiest playwrights in London: her short play Triumph was announced for the Almeida earlier this month.
Cloud 9 plays its first performance at the Lyttelton theatre on Monday 2 November 2026 and its last on Wednesday 13 January 2027, with press night on Tuesday 10 November 2026. Performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm; four evenings begin at 6.30pm instead, on 24 November, 1 December, 3 December and 10 December.
