ORONO – The Maine Masque Theatre’s newest production, Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud 9,” running April 10-13 in Hauck Auditorium at the University of Maine, offers an intense look at sexuality, social identification and suppression of human sexuality – and how little really changes over time.

The annual Maine Masque production is a completely student-run theater project directed, acted and promoted by UM students who also handle set design, costumes, lighting, sound and other aspects.

The play runs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, April 10-12, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 13. Tickets are $8, free to students with MaineCard.

Churchill’s “Cloud 9” is an intense look into the suppression of human sexuality and its progression, or lack of progression, over the span of 100 years. Act one takes place in the African savannah during British colonization. Act two takes place in late 20th century London. While the time gap between acts is 100 years, the characters age only 25 years.

The play is directed by senior Derek Francis of Eddington, a theater and mass communications major.

“The crimes of imperialism are still with us today,” Francis said. “Churchill illustrates just how little we have grown in our cultures in terms of our ideals. However, she offers some hope, which is what I hope people will walk away with. These antiquated ideologies are being broken away from.”

“Cloud 9” also deals with sexual and social identification in a unique way. In act one, the matriarch of the family, Betty, is played by a man and by a woman in act two. Joshua, the family’s slave from a local African tribe, is played by a white man. The youngest daughter, Victoria, is played by a doll.

Each actor switches characters from act one to act two. The effect heightens the shifts in age and attitude over 25 years between acts. How much change actually has taken place is left for the audience to decide.

“Cloud 9” sets, designed by senior Justin Elie, a theater major from Auburn, are heavily tied to the historical periods of each act in a physical and theatrical sense.

“To represent the time change between act one and two,” said Elie, “the sets reflect the relative theatrical periods of those times.”

The separation of the progressions of the world and its inhabitants is jarring. “The audience is meant to see the loss of space – showing that the world has gotten smaller,” Elie said.

Lighting is important for mood and location. Designer Kurt Krohne brings out the natural warmth of the African set with earthy colors and warm tones, while the set of London is gloomy and industrial.

“Africa is a warm, inviting presence,” said Krohne, a fourth-year theater major from Buckfield. He explained that the idea of a contemporary London culture illustrates that Londoners are “advanced and more in control” and keep nature at a distance.

The idea of society having control over nature is a recurring theme in the play, and the use of light illuminates this subtext subtly and naturally.

For information about the play, call the Maine Center for the Arts box office at 581-1755. “Cloud 9” is recommended for mature audiences.