“Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world” in Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud Nine.” The play, which explores and challenges the social norms of gender, sexuality, race and class, will be performed April 3-5 and April 10-12 at 8:00 p.m. in Sternberger Auditorium. “Cloud Nine,” produced onstage for the first time in London in 1979, was the product of a workshop on sexual politics with the Joint Stock Theatre Company that Churchill attended in 1978.

“It’s an unusual play because the first act is set in 1874, British empire Africa, but the second act is set in 1979 London,” said Jack Zerbe, the play’s director and professor of theatre studies. “And even though it’s 105 years later, three of the characters have only aged 25 years.”

Cloud Nine uses same-sex relationships and cross gender casting to challenge stereotypes. In the first act, sophomore Ben Storey plays Betty, the young wife of Clive, played by junior Ryan Furlough. Sophomore Mary Pearl Monnes plays their young son Edward, and their daughter Victoria is portrayed by a dummy, representing the Victorian expectation for young women to act as submissive dolls.

“By casting people against gender it points out the constructed-ness of those roles in our society,” Storey said.

Betty longs to have an affair with Harry, a gay explorer who has engaged in secretive sexual encounters with both the family’s black servant and Betty and Clive’s young son Edward. Meanwhile, Edward apparently struggles with his own sexuality. He professes his love to Harry and plays with dolls in secret. By making the relationships between Harry and Betty, and Harry and Edward, simultaneously same-sex and heterosexual, Cloud Nine deliberately topples socially constructed norms.

In the second act, which takes place in 1979, each family member is more open with themselves and others about their gender identities and sexuality.

“By 1979, the world has changed enough that you start to see people beginning to imagine a world without these socially constructed norms,” Zerbe said. “So in the second act there is a wife who leaves her husband to begin a relationship with another woman. There is a gay male couple. There is a middle age woman who discusses the joys of rediscovering masturbation. It’s really out-there stuff.”

Although the play deals with heavy and often controversial issues, there is a fair share of comic relief tucked into the complex plot.

“This a very interesting play because it is part high comedy and part thinking man’s drama, and you have to come with all of the parts of your brain working,” Zerbe said. “One moment you’ll be giggling and another moment you’ll be shocked. It is a very complex play in its ideas, and in terms of Guilford’s ethos, it’s very much in line with what the college is trying to teach people about critical thinking about classes and races and sexes and homophobia.”

Tickets for “Cloud Nine” are available for reservation in the lobby of Founder’s Hall during lunch hours. Admission is free for Guilford students and $5 for anyone in the outside community. Students should be warned that the play does sell out and it is necessary to reserve a ticket in advance to be guaranteed admittance. Thursday nights tend to have lighter attendance, so they are the best bet for walk-ins.

The cast of seven and production crew of about 25 have been hard at work under Zerbe’s direction over the past eight weeks.

“It’s about 20 hours of rehearsal a week,” Storey said. “This past weekend in Sternberger we spent 12 hours each night working. It’s a lot of work but I think it’s worth it.”

The play has challenged the actors, who had to learn to speak comfortably in a British dialect. Beyond the accents, some of the actors have had to step slightly outside their comfort zones for their roles.

“One of the challenges has been allowing myself to be comfortable with (portraying a woman), and it was interesting to see that I was uncomfortable in the first place because I thought I was pretty open minded,” Storey said.

“Cloud Nine” also presents technical challenges because it includes a lot of quick changes in costume and scenery including one scene where a male character leaves the stage dressed in black boots, jeans and a leather jacket and re-enters 33 seconds later in full Victorian women’s garb.

The final challenge calls for the audience members to attend “Cloud Nine” with an open mind, and walk away with a deeper understanding of complex identities and the simultaneous pain and joy of challenging the conformity that society demands.

“It’s really a play about learning to be comfortable with who you are,” said sophomore Kevin Smithey, who plays Harry. “It’s been an interesting experience for us and I think the audience will feel (the same way).