en briefly touched on in the workshop. When I thought of the colonial setting the whole thing fell quite quickly into place. Though no character is based on anyone in the company, the play draws deeply on our experiences, and would not have been written without the workshop" (Churchill viii). The use of cross gendering as well as cross-culturalizing in the first act has completely changed our current ways of production. This device is not used out of sheer conventionality, but out of necessity for the characters and the impact of the plot. "By mismatching the performers with their stage roles, Churchill underscores the artificiality and conventionality of the characters' sex roles. A clever theatrical idea thus serves a dramatic purpose, and the sexual shenanigans that result give rise to more than just the predictable cheap laughs" (Asahina 565).In this play we see two very distinct acts, a style in which later in Churchill's career she will use incessantly. In one act we are in colonial Africa in 1880. Act two we are in London in 1980, but for the characters, they have only aged 25 years. "The ideology of the Victorian family is shown to interweave class and male superiority, and hence to suppress female sexuality and homosexuality.the second half is merely a series of isolated portraits of more libertarian sexual relationships in the 1970's" (Wandor 7). During the entire introduction of the characters to the audience we hear an actual echo of the characters trying to be what Clive wants. Joshua, the Black servant, says "What white men want is what I want to be." Clive's wife, Betty, states "I live for Clive. The whole aim of my life is to be what he looks for in a wife." Other characters resonate the same. The actual introduction of the characters is presented in the form of a song. This leads us to believe that these characters never question their roles because they believe it and it is so ingrained within them, tha...
